The Graffitti of Your Heart

  Recently, my place of employment was hit by vandals who spray painted their calling card on the white painted exterior of our building.  I admit, sometimes graffiti has a certain artistic quality about it, but not this time.  This graffiti however was crudely painted letters that obviously had some kind of meaning known only to the ones who gave them to us.  The letters were painted in such a hurry that the paint had run in multiple streaks down the wall leaving a mess.  Anyone who has seen examples of this knows how a nice clean building can be scarred and left with marks that no one enjoys looking at.  All it takes is one can of spray paint and someone with nothing better to do. 
 
  Because of my responsibilities at work, it fell to me to clean up this mess.  After a trip to the nearby hardware store to pick up a gallon of fresh white paint and a roller, I was ready to begin my work of covering up the ugly marks left behind by our after hours visitor.  It was not a large area that I had to repair but it had to be done. 

  As the moments passed and I rolled a fresh coat of white paint over the black marks that greeted our visitors as they turned into the parking lot, a thought crossed my mind.  During our journey through this life, our heart is marked by the hurts and the troubles of this world.  Each unkind word, every wrongful action leaves a mark on our heart.   We become scarred and often the pain last longer than it should.  Sometimes, we are able to wipe away these hurts ourselves, but the scars remain.  Other times, the passage of time eases the pain, but marks are left behind. 
 
  We can carry these marks all throughout our lives, but that is not the plan of God for us.  He does not want His children to hurt.  He does not want us to carry the scars left behind by those who have wronged us or by the times of trouble that we have encountered during our lifetime. There is a fix to these marks for us. Our Heavenly Father has given us hope, He has given us Jesus.  

  So many of us carry these scars around with us needlessly.  Our Lord is waiting and He is ready to cover those marks and scars left behind on our hearts.  All we have to do is to let Him take the brush of His love to our hearts and cover those marks and those scars with the paint of His precious blood.  If you will do just that, He will paint your heart and make it new.  Let Him cleanse it of the graffiti that this life has left behind on your heart.  Let Jesus make you a new creature in Him and erase the pain of this world from your life forever.

What's the Hurry?

   Recently, I went grocery shopping with my wife, my oldest daughter and her two children.  My two little grandkids love to help mommy shop, grabbing cookies and whatever else that is in their reach and tossing it into the buggy.  But this trip was a little different.  My little grandson was out ahead of the buggy trying to rush things along.  All throughout the store he was obviously in a rush to get out of there.    Getting a little frustrated his mother ask, "Son, what's the hurry."


  Recently, my study and my mediations have all been in this same direction.  I almost feel like the Lord is asking me, "Son, what is the hurry?"   I think that the Lord is speaking this to all His people.  He misses His children and wants to spend time with us.  He is saying "Wait".

  We live in a rush rush hurry hurry world and it seems like none of us spend as much time in the word and with the Lord in prayer as we should.  There is countless examples in the word where our Heavenly Father is telling us to wait on Him.  Isaiah 40, " Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength...."  Lamentations 3:26  "It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."  Lamentations 3:25  "The Lord is good to those who wait on Him, to those who diligently seek Him."  Even Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24:49 to "tarry (wait) in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."   I wonder, what would have happened if the desciples and the rest of the 120 in the Upper Room had been in a hurry and not stuck around.  They would have missed out on the promise of God!  They would have missed out completely!


  If we want the blessings of God in our lives we can't continue to treat Him like our local drive through at McDonalds.  We can't pretend that His blessings are like the new microwave oven I just installed where we can have our food fully cooked in just a couple of minutes.  He wants us to wait.  He wants us to spend time with Him. When we get into to big of a rush when it comes to seeking the Lord, then we will never know what blessings we will miss out on.  I beg of you this night, wait upon the Lord.  Spend some quality time with Him by seeking His presence in your life.   Don't give up!  Don't lose interest!  And most importantly don't get in a hurry!