Today...for the first time... they met God.

Today I witnessed a crowd before me.  Many faces.  Some had a skin tone of glowing white.  Some a sick pale white.  Some a beautiful shade of dark cocoa.  Some a soft, warm, cozy brown.  Many had smiles.  More had sorrow.  I usually live in my own world, trying to keep my four little ducklings in tow- following my side, as I walk about the halls at church. 

Today was different.

 As I sat in the cushy church seats, I observed the families that surround me.  My thoughts were outside myself.  They entered into the hearts and minds of people (all ages) next to me.  The room was silent with no talking, except the sound of a guitar and the sweet, simple voices of a husband and wife leading us in songs.  As I listened to the music.  I tried to sing.  I could not.  My soul was heavy.  It was full of noise.  Not the noise of my own worries or concerns.  It was heavy with the heart aches and cries of those all around me.  I could hear their hearts beating with anxiety.  I could feel their deadly pulse of depression.  I could sense their strong- pulling tension.  I could feel the cold-bitterness that lingered in their inner core.  I could see the faces wrinkled with doubt.  I saw the tears of single mothers... alone.  I saw the wife who kept looking at her husband in disapproval.  I saw the elderly woman, holding on the shoulder of the younger to help keep her balance.  I witnessed the mother and father walking in late with exhaustion, from their troubled teens.  I sat.  I listened.  I was deeply saddened and not sure what to do with my emotions. Do I sing like everyone else?  I did not.  I could not.  I was not able to concentrate on the words being sang.  They people demanded my attention.  I was glued to the invisible, but very real reality of life...the inward battles people were trying to choke down.

So I prayed.  I lifted up these hurting souls to God Almighty.  I begged  for God to fill up the empty hearts with Himself.  To pour out peace and comfort to His children.  I pleaded on their behalf...for healing. Not so much a physical healing...but a healing that brings forgiveness and love to the aches and pains that others have brought upon them.  I prayed that the families would be set free from the trap of the enemy!  I prayed that these people would know how God loves them and created them for a purpose.  I prayed.  God listened.

After our pastor concluded his sermon, he gave an open invitation to the church.  He asked if anyone wanted to know "real love" personally?  He asked if anyone wanted forgiveness? He asked if anyone wanted to lose their baggage and carry a lighter load?  He asked if anyone wanted to accept the free, un-earned, gift of grace from God?  He asked...the people responded. 

As the guitar played softly in the background, the people came.  One by one, they walked to the front of the church.  One by one, they stood up out of their seat and the chains were broken.  One by one, the people were set free.  All the tension, all the doubt, all the fear, all the anxiety were left at the alter.  They came and Jesus met them.  With His arms wide open.  He received their broken lives and they were made new!  Tears rolled down my cheeks.  The man (who's wife looked at him with disapproval) went forward.  (She wept.)  The teenager walked forward. (They wept.)  A husband and wife held hands and walked forward as a team. (They wept.) The elderly woman made her way to the front with a small child. (I wept.)  A child with a cute pink hat walked boldy alone to the front.  More than a dozen hurting people found "real love". 

 Today...for the first time... they met God.  I wept  with joy, because I knew their lives would never be the same!  I knew that they would be forever changed.  Not just on this earth...but for eternity!  And then with the guitar, I sang.  My mind was not cluttered by the silent cries of people...it was rejoicing for the people had found their Savior!

1 Kings 8:28 

^"Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today:"

Psalm 94:19 

"In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
         Your comforts delight my soul".