Urgent!

Something is happening in my younger two children. In the past week, my nine-year-old son and my five-year-old daughter have both had an urgent spiritual need that had to be satisfied NOW. The first occasion was during our family Bible reading time a few nights ago. As my husband was discussing something, our son looked like he was going to jump out of his skin. Dave asked him what he needed; Tate desired clarification regarding a church project. Some work needed to be done on the building and Tate was filled with an immediate call to help take care of it. Once Bible time was over, Tate raced upstairs. It had still been on his mind after his dad had clarified things and he needed to deal with this urgent matter now! God had put it on Tate’s heart to be generous with the money he had received and, when Tate realized that conviction, he couldn’t get rid of his money fast enough.
Then yesterday, I was finishing up making lunch for the kiddos when I got distracted by some paperwork. Lunch was ready and my daughter wanted to eat, but first she had to find me with her own bit of urgent news. “Mom! I need to pray right now. Can we get back to the kitchen so I can pray before we eat?” Thinking she must have been starving, I headed toward the table.

Her need, her urgent need, though, was to pray, not to eat.

As we settled in for the lunchtime prayer, she began pouring out her heart for people to be healed and to know Jesus. She was convicted of the need to witness the hope of Christ to everyone and she wouldn’t be satisfied until she prayed accordingly.

God is doing something in these children. It’s something that they have identified and must obey immediately or they are unsettled until then. Kind of reminds me of Augustine’s familiar quote:

Our hearts are restless until they can find rest in You.

Parenting is a privilege and a joy, but it’s not ever easy, so before you think my kids are super-spiritual (and, of course, that would make Dave and me super-spiritual parents, right?), let me back up a moment and tell you that is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from the truth. I’m sharing these stories with you because it’s exciting when God works in any person and because I was convicted.

Am I finding something from God to be urgent?

What must I obey now?

Is there something distracting me from taking care of the Lord’s business immediately?

Then He (Jesus) said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9: 57-62

To have the faith of a child…realizing that when the voice of God, through His Holy Spirit, calls them to do something, they do it. They don’t have the wisdom or the sophistication of adults, do they? We must take care of this paperwork first. We must pay for our car, our boat, our new carpeting, our [insert your need here] before giving to the Kingdom. We must complete our To-Do List first.

Call upon the Lord with me, today—there is an urgent need whether you realize it or not. We must know the Word, we must count the cost of discipleship, we must throw everything aside to proclaim Jesus as Lord because this is what we’re called to do. Perhaps sooner than later this will be thrust upon us and we must be prepared. What is urgent for you? What is urgent for me? I pray that it is the Lord’s business.