The willing heart
'Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD'S contribution …’ - EXODUS 35:4-5
I was blessed to have a wife with a heart yielded to the Lord. When Jo Beth and I fell in love, we didn’t know we would spend our lives in Christian ministry. One day I said, “God is calling me into the ministry, and I don’t understand it.” Jo Beth embraced the call wholeheartedly.
Our ministry has flowed in patterns opposite the expected. We always moved from larger churches to smaller. At one point, we had to move from a gorgeous location to a deserted textile town. “If God is calling you, I will go,” Jo Beth had said.
When we arrived in Houston in 1978, we came to a shrinking church in a city whose oil economy was on the verge of bust. After a quarter century, we saw that church reach a resident membership of 40,000. The willing heart will make sacrifices to follow God’s call. Her Master’s authority was always unquestioned in Jo Beth’s heart. That’s the only kind of heart that will experience the joy along the journey of faith.
TODAY’S FOCUS
Do you measure everything by material standards or by God’s will? Commit yourself to trusting Him even when things seem not to make sense.