I Limp when I'm away.

One thing that I daily realize I do, without intentions, is allowing my heart to change when I am around individuals who I know nothing about.  My heart changes from loving and caring for strangers and changes when I am around friends who are believers and friends who I know are not believers.  For some reason my heart becomes shut off when I am in a gas station or eating at a restaurant or walking past a neighbor or sitting at a coffee shop.  I admit that in those moments I become silent and dead.  My faith is in my heart and not on my tongue.  My joy for the Lord is not a thought but a internal secret.  My eyes do not see people who the Lord longs for.  Although when I know full well I am around a believer or a nonbeliever my speech comes from my heart and my joy is alive.  But only when I "know" them and they speak of their beliefs.

I am a believer among believers and nonbelievers, and not those I have no clue about.  That has brought an epidemic to my thoughts and like a plague I notice it more and more.  If my heart is only awake when I know the people around me and their heart, what makes me sleep and stops me from seeing my need to serve the Lord is at all times with all people? Due to my realization and ability to catch my faults I will be trying to live out what Christ has asked me to become not only to those I know.  This is not a task for everyone but only those who feel the same pressures and convictions of their inconsistent walk.  We who walk need to walk straight up at all times, not limp when we are not being watched.

John 21:15-17
When Christ asked Peter three times if he still loved Him Peter became frustrated.  He said three times "Yes, you know that I love you."  And three times Christ replies with "feed my lambs/sheep."  Not feed the good sheep, healthy sheep, sheep who you think look better, or the sheep who come to you daily and listen.  But all sheep.  All meaning even those who you know you don't care about, the ones who you have hurt, the ones you have punished by not feeding, the ones who don't want to be your sheep and get lost.  Even the ones you pass by daily and don't think their worth caring for because you think they are fine not being cared for.

Pray that when I am convicted to feed all sheep that I listen, obey and do it and not limp around when I think no one is watching.  As well as the ability to let the joy I have in the Lord be seen and never held back.

Love, Dan