Throughout the year, I observe questions from college students. This really shouldn’t be a surprise since I work with college students… and they adore me (sarcasm anyone??). This is the third installment of the semi-annual series of posts of questions from students with my responses. Here is the most recent question posed by a student; and then my response.
STUDENT:
During the poverty simulation this weekend, Janet Dorrell was talking about being intimate with God and when you’re truly intimate with someone, you know what breaks their heart. And as you become closer and more intimate, those things begin to break your heart as well. So I started wondering about the things that break my heart. are they the same things that break God’s heart? So that’s my new thought that I’m struggling with–what breaks God’s heart? and does it break mine too? but then…..what do i do with that?
She also said that when God gives you a passion for something, it grabs hold of your heart-and it transforms your life. so that’s my second new thought that I’m thinking about. What are the things God has made me passionate about? and how can I act on them and DO something about it? I’m still in school, I don’t feel like I can do much of anything while I’m here…but since God has me at Baylor for a reason, I know that’s not true.
So this week. 2 new thoughts that I’d love feedback on. what breaks God’s heart and what do we do with that? and what do we do about the passions that he puts in our hearts?
MY RESPONSE:
Thanks for the question(s). Just to help answer this, I’ll break down it question by question (3 total).
QUESTION 1: What breaks God’s heart?
Simply put, I think I know (without hearing Janet Dorrell’s talk) what she’s implying to be “on God’s heart”: injustice, poverty, etc. While I think God has great concern for those and many other things, it is difficult for me to say “Africa” or “consumerism” or “war” or “injustice” (all things that trouble my heart) are the exact things that are “breaking his heart.”
But if I was going to look at the counsel of Scripture, why Jesus came, what He accomplished while here on earth, and what he’s doing now… I think we can safely say that the very thing that breaks God’s heart is something we’ve all heard and something we’re all aware of:
sin.
Injustice, consumerism, murder, drunkenness, poverty – these are all peripherals to sin. They get their source from sin, and thus they exist. Here’s some context where I get this idea:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1:18-25
I think clearly that if we eradicate sin, we eradicate poverty, social injustice, pride, consumerism, and the like. Let me be clear though: we do not then ignore the periphials. We fight them but we understand the root problem… sin. So we don’t get frustrated and quit helping the poor cause they keep staying poor or stop helping those with AIDS, we keep fighting, but we know that Jesus and his Gospel is going to win in the end and defeat the great enemy Satan. That gives me hope and strength to promote things like PLC, and the ONE Campaign, etc.
This leads us to the second question…
QUESION 2: What do we do with that?
- Come under conviction: We look at our lives, we observe the things we do and for many of us, we’re so depraved that our moral compass is off kilter – so we must read large amounts of Scripture. Maybe start with Genesis so you can read how generation after generation of foolish men brought sin and pain into the world by living sinfully.
- Confess sin: This simply means agreegin with God and telling the truth about who we are and what we’ve done… somethign I’m not sure many are willing to do. For me, I confess all my sins to Jesus. Then I confess all my sins to my wife. While conviction is God’s gift to you, confession is your response.
- Repent: You then turn away from the things you were doing and begin to live differently. Turn your face to Jesus and your back to sin. Or as John Owen says: “Kill sin before it kills you.”
- Walk: Live your life now free from the bondage of sin; free from the shackles of guilt and walk the walk Jesus called us to when He said “Follow Me.”
QUESTION 3: What do we do about the passions that he puts in our hearts?
You be obedient to the things he places on your heart. Psalm 37:4 says it like this: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I think a lot of people have used this as a launching pad to say “hey, if you delight yourself in God, whatever you desire… he’ll give it to you!” But that certainly isn’t what’s being said here. What is being said simply is this: “When you’ve delighted yourself in him; that he is your pure pleasure, he will then plant within you desires. And because you’re intimate with him, you’ll know them to be from him and pure.”
So, you be obedient to those things: James says it like this:
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
So you don’t delay. You fervently pursue those things God has given you a passion about. And by not doing this, you’ll come under conviction, confess, repent, and then walk and do the very things you’re supposed to do.
I truly hope this helps. If you need more clarification, let me know!
criner