Until the Whole World Hears

"I want to be Your hands and feet, I want to live a life that leads, To see You set the captive free
Until the whole world hears
And I pray the day will see More of You and less of me
Lord, I want my life to be The song You sing" 

<3 Casting Crowns

The word "whole" has been coming up in my prayer life a lot lately, in different ways, but so great. One of the things that I have been getting out of Lectio is "whole heart". As I contemplated this in prayer, I found that God puts me into different situations and encounter different things in order for my love for God and other to grow stronger. I look at is as even though I may face hardships along the way, his plan is to ultimately build my heart up stronger to serve Him and not tear me down.

"With Every NO, God has a bigger YES!"

Another way that I have run into "whole" in prayer is tonight when I was praying Lectio and came across the words "whole law" in Matt 22:34-40. Right before those words, it says to Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. In order to fully serve God and His people, I think that it's necessary to love God with everything you have.


I am chaperoning a retreat tomorrow and it's a homeless retreat. Yes, I said Homeless... The teenagers and chaperones and youth ministers will be sleeping outside on the ground with no more than 3 items that they have brought and will be homeless for the night and not eat much more than rice and soup..things like that. These teens will get moved by the cops just as people on the streets in Tampa do everyday. I bring this up because this is an experience that will help people Love God and His people with everything they have because they are sacrificing, even if only for a day, the comfort of their beds and homes to sleep on the wet, cold ground with very little belongings.


My favorite part of this retreat is not the praise and worship or the sleeping outside though, it is going to Pinellas Hope on Sunday morning to serve the residents of the facility who are essentially homeless. Being able to experience for one night what they go through every night then being able to serve these amazing children of God is great. 


The song lyrics at the beginning of this post are from the song "Until the Whole World Hears" by Casting Crowns and it's been playing in my head all week. I want to be God's hands and feet and I pray everyday that people see God working everyday instead of me doing things. It is humbling, which is something else that has been very consistent in my prayer life also, and for people to see God working instead of myself is what makes spreading his Love so great.


Thanksgiving is this week, so take some time out to help others around you and be thankful for the belongings you have been given. Don't just help on Thanksgiving though, we are called to serve all the time.