"The Proof of Your Love"

If I sing but don't have love
I waste my breath with every song
I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don't have love
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say

So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love

If I give 
To a needy soul but don't have love then who is poor?
It seems all the poverty is found in me

So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
Oh, let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love

When it's all said and done
When we sing our final song
Only love remains
Only love remains

Let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love

“I am bankrupt without love”

a prayer

Right now i am in the middle of my busy day... like so many of us have everyday, every week, every year. Racing around... chasing the next moment. I don't have time to write this post. I shouldn't be typing my heart out here... i should be sending off for bonds and finishing proposals... but my heart is crying out... about to burst and i must let it out...

because in this moment when i'm so too full, too busy... i see a small photo of a sweet girl... two sweet girls in fact... who have all the time in the world... time to dream, to pray, to cry, to ache, to miss, to beg to come home... two girls who live a world apart from us... but who are my sisters... born of the heart... i'm reminded right now that sometimes delivery is long and painful and sometimes it is short and the pain is fast... but this birth of the heart is a long and painful one. and although it's long and painful it is sure to deliver...

Abba Father... your heart is for the orphan... your heart is that of adoption of us all... Father, i beg that you would move mightily in adoptions worldwide Abba... Father that the floodgates would be opened and that these adoptions, these births of the heart, would be brought to pass. Father... send your spirit and move through the embassies, the courthouses, the homestudies, the orphanages, and speed along these earthly fortresses to bring home your children. God i KNOW that you are so much greater than the systems that man sets up and i KNOW that you can bypass and move all barriers!! Father, i also know that your timing is perfect. God right now i just beg that you would be the rescuer of your little ones. We are the hands and feet... but without the heart beat of You we are useless. God we need you... as we always do... come Lord Jesus...

Here - Kari Jobe - Acoustic Version - Album Where I Find You

Father... You are o SO faithful... teach us, teach me, to REST in Your arms. To know that YOU are here.. always.

Father... that those aching for something, anything, will know that You are HERE... give me grace to know Your REST so that those aching will also see that You are Here...

...Until the whole world knows....

Does it seem like some days the things we say we believe, that we memorize from the Word, that we talk to others about, and that we pray about are not really the things that we are living out? I just heard someone put it this way:

If your dad had asked your young 10 year old self to clean your room, and you had went up to your room and returned to him excited and bouncing telling him that you had memorized exactly what he had asked you to do. And you recited to him that he had asked you to "Clean your room", but you really hadn't done it, only memorized it. Was that what he had desired us to do? only memorize that we should clean our room? of course not. What do you think our Father thinks then when we only memorize what he wants our lives to look like, when we only sing about it and read about it and talk about... but we don't MOVE. We forget about the GO and we stay in our happy, comfortable worlds... while the world around is aching and dying without knowing the HOPE of our Lord, because we didn't dare to believe it enough to LIVE it.

Today i am feeling disgusted by my constant battle against the love of the comfortable, relaxing, happy, peaceful life and that of the adventure of leaving ALL and FOLLOWING Jesus... of embracing that which He has placed in front of me to DO.

If we do not live what we believe, if we do not sacrifice... how will they know? How will the girl whose momma just can't seem to kick her addiction to the drink, know that someone DOES love her? What about the girl who is constantly needy for my attention... who always has something weighing deep on her heart... how will she KNOW that in Christ... all things are NEW! What about the girl who wants to feel beautiful... wants to be needed... desired.. so again and again she gives in... she sends those pictures to another boy wanting only one thing from her... and all she wants is love... how will she know that someone loves her for her?

Shame on me... that these girls annoy me!!! That i get tired of their constant NEED... constant pull on what i think is MY time or MY day off or MY life... when ALL they really want/need is the LOVE of our Christ... and if He really is... truly is... alive and breathing, living in my heart... i WILL love them... i WILL sacrifice for them... i will reach out with the hand of Christ and meet them where they are... let them take of the time, energy, love that really isn't mine... is my Fathers!! Only by Father God living and breathing in us can we BE like Jesus. like the words of Katie Davis, "I really don't think God will say NO.", when we are loving others like Jesus... when we come to the Father in prayer about adoption, or service, or anything that is after His heart... and we really think He would say no?! And then she giggles, because the thought is preposterous.

Father... i beg you to make our hearts NEW. To give us all a LOVE like Jesus... infiltrate us with your spirit... and SHINE ON! Not of me Father but ALL of YOU... and your Victory, and Power, and Dominion.

That All would experience YOU!