"I am moved when you love deeply. It is the heart of Jesus in action. Your caring for others with reckless abandon is the way He loved. He had no fear of the consequences of His love. In fact, His love for you drove Him to the cross. It delights Me when you do the same.

"Love those who hate you. Love those who do not know how to love you back. More than likely it will cost you. When it does, you come to Me. I will heal you and equip you to love again. It is My way. It is the way of the cross. It is the way to My heart. It is the way to freedom for you. It is the way to real life!"

II Ch. 16:9 NIV

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."

Matthew 5:43-45 NIV

43) "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

44) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45) that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

II Cor. 5:20a AMP

So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us.

When was the last time you became passionate about the Lord's plans? For that matter, when was the last time the Lord's plans for your life took priority over the other demands you face each day?

God is clearly requiring each of us to make Him our priority. Still, most of us agonize over the demands of simply living out each day - paying the rent, providing for food, etc. To stop, even for a day, and spend it entirely with the Lord should He ask us to do so would be beyond comprehension for some of us. We are convinced that the answer is heart commitment.

Merry and I believe that each and every one of us, who call ourselves Christians, must make a choice to live Christ's life passionately throughout our very ordinary days. We are to approach the tasks and the people placed before us with His kind of zeal and unquestioning love, presenting every one of them as an offering to the Lord for His glory. We are convinced that this life is not so much about what we do as it is about the One for whom we are doing it.

If everything that we become involved in is truly offered to the Lord and placed under His Lordship, the fluff will fall away and the eternal purposes of God will become priorities to us. Living Christ's passionate life unto the Lord will change us and those around us who are looking for answers. Take our stuff and replace it with Your stuff, Lord.

Give me Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett