Create in us a Desire - O Lord

A clear trait of those with evangelistic giftings is having a clear desire for other people to discover Jesus and to come to faith in Him. A frustration shared between evangelists is that other believers do not always appear to exhibit such a desire! I recall a prominent church leader explaining how their congregation didn't develop as they had hoped in the area of witnessing. After some reflection they concluded two underlying reasons: a lack of simple 'how to ...', and a lack of desire among the individual members. The first aspect can be addressed with training or coaching, but the latter is a spiritual issue.

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 above is a well known verse. But do we forget that God's own heart desire is for each and every person? His heart desire is to reach out to them, to include them in. For that He sent Jesus. For that He chooses to work through us.

Another Christian leader with a multi-decade ministry that has encouraged many to come to Jesus asked it like this: 'Each day, do we wake up with a genuine concern for the lost?'. I myself worry that this depth of concern seems missing among many believers. I pray that dynamic changes!

In our own work locally on a new housing estate, we are refining our thinking on how we express our sense of belonging as believers to one another where we live. Personally, we seem to be coming down to three commitments:

1. A commitment to Christ
2. A commitment to those around us (on the estate)
3. A commitment to seeing God's Kingdom across the whole estate

This set of commitments can also be expressed as what I believe are Godly desires:

1. A desire for God
2. A desire for one another (on the estate)
3. A desire for the whole estate

That third desire conveys a hope for Kingdom flourishing for the whole estate. That implies a clear desire for people to discover Jesus and to come to faith in Him.

Yet such a desire does not necessarily come automatically ... Create in us a desire, O Lord!