Surprised by Joy
April 18, 2024
The mute heart
August 01, 2018
My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. - JEREMIAH 4:19
A worker fell partially into a vat of hot lead and managed to thud over its lip onto the floor, near death. “Get a doctor… call an ambulance!” his work mates screamed. The desperately injured man cried, “It’s too late for a doctor. Is there anyone here who can tell me about God?”
The person who told this story to a friend at church said there were 300 in the big factory ready to save the man’s life physically, but no one who could tell him how to meet God. “Then why didn’t you tell him?” the fellow church member asked. “I couldn’t,” the man replied. “Those men have never heard me teach a Bible class, but they’ve heard me ‘cuss’ and lose my temper… My life closed my lips.”
Jeremiah was the opposite. His heart could not be mute. It pounded with the passion to tell people the truth, to warn them of judgment, point them to salvation. When you know God’s good news your heart can’t remain mute. That’s why it’s important to have a life that won’t close your lips!
TODAY’S FOCUS
If you encountered a situation today in which you had mere moments to prepare a person to meet God, could you do it? Ask God to strengthen the witness of your heart, behavior and voice.
