What does God's heart beat for?

    You know when there's something you just absolutely love or are passionate about and you start to do it or talk about it... you get really excited and you feel alive!! Ever had that experience??? I have. I know for me... it's music!! If you see me play with my band, I truly feel alive and am so excited about it! Or just have a conversation with me about music, and I'm grinning ear to ear... I love it!! I'd say things and experiences like that are what our hearts beat for! We love it!

But what about God? What does his heart beat for?  What is he most passionate about?

    As I thought about this, many things came to my mind and they can all be summed up in the simple word of LOVE! The theme of love is woven throughout the whole bible as God shows his love for us over and over again and how we too should love! The bible can be summed up in two commands: 1) LOVE the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and  2) LOVE your neighbor as yourself!

So what does God's heart beat for?

    I think it's desiring to see us LOVE! He desires to see us seek him, and love him with all our hearts! And He desires to see us show His love to EVERYONE around us! To love others! This means loving your horrible boss, the annoying coworker, the weirdo person on the train, and the smelly homeless man. All of them are God's children that need God's love!

     And how do you go about showing his love? It's by meeting their needs, being there for them, and fighting for them! Jesus didn't come to earth to sit on a throne. When Jesus came to earth, he served others, fought for others, and fought for justice! He was despised by so many because he continued to break laws and upset the ways of government that were not right or were unfair to others. He fought for the justice and rights of all, especially the poor!

   Matthew 25: 35-36 says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Verse 40 then says, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

       God is in the business of helping others, the poor, the outcasts, the lonely, EVERYONE! Everyone needs to feel and see the Love of God!

So what are some ways we can do that?

   Easy... there are TONS of ways.... but what God calls or inspires us to do will be different for each one of us! I read this book titled Zealous Love by Mike and Danae Yankoski. I highly recommend it! It tells you about the 8 biggest problems going on in our world today- human trafficking, unclean water, refugees, hunger, lack of education, not taking care of our environment, HIV/AIDS, and inequality. I mean just take a second and let that all sink in! Its crazy how much hurt and wrong is going on around us and it is so easy for us to be oblivious to it as we go on with our daily lives! People don't have clean water, a place to sleep, or the same rights that we do and that's not right! I challenge you to really spend time thinking about the vast needs that are out there and what you might be passionate about to help and to change! And read Zealous Love!! It will help guide you, inform you, and see what you may be passionate about!

    And please don't take this as me saying these 8 things are the only things we can do... not at all! I'm just mentioning them because they're the biggest problems across the globe and I'm pretty sure that God is really concerned about them. But God is calling us all in smaller ways to love the people that we meet, see, and work with everyday too!

     For me, I know now that God has given me this deep desire about education! I went to the Philippines this summer and I found out that many children are unable to get an education because they're families can't afford to pay for them to go to school! I was very distraught by that! Every child should be able to get an education. And it was there that it made me realize that education is the only key that will open the door for someone to get out of poverty. Unless you're gifted with a trade, you need an education to have a job that will provide for all your basic needs.

     And then I thought about it in America- the only thing that will break the cycle of poverty and welfare in families is an education. That is the only key to breaking the cycle! With an education, a huge door opens with many opportunities for jobs that will sustain a living. Without an education, you can only get jobs that pay very little and can't really sustain a living. Then I thought about all the outside forces that try and keep kids away from completing their education: gangs, drugs, sex, violence. Its a fight! And its a fight I'm willing to fight! God's given me this deep passion to help our children succeed by giving them an education and helping them see the the importance in that! And God has prompted me to become a principal....so I just started classes at NYU this week to reach that goal! Please pray for me as I go that I will learn all that God wants me to learn and that He molds me into the principal and educator that He wants me to be!

So how are you "living by God's heartbeat?"

Me- God is my pacemaker and I'm passionate about educating our children, I'm living by God's heartbeat!

Loving Recklessly,
Becky