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Inspirational article from Joanne Lowe

Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web

MY ARMS ARE OPEN

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11: 28 – 30 King James Version

All of us have heartaches and heavy burdens that feel overwhelming to us. Jesus is calling “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. There is no burden too heavy, no task too great and no crisis that He can’t handle. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He is waiting with a heart filled with Love and His arms open wide for us to run into them.

Only Jesus can take away the hurts and devastating pain in our hearts. He does it in different ways. Sometimes He whispers to us gently and tenderly “I Love you”. Other times, He uses our loved ones to help ease the burden and pain. If God has laid someone on your heart that you know is hurting and in tremendous pain, then you need to cry out to Him to help the person. We are to be encouragers and administer the unconditional Love of Jesus to our loved ones and to a world that is in tremendous pain.

It isn’t necessary to pray for a certain amount of time for Him to hear our prayers. He is not impressed with the length of our prayers; His heart is touched by the condition of our hearts. I’m reminded of something a friend of mine told me several years ago. I had called her and asked her to pray for me. As soon as I hung up the telephone, my prayer was answered.

I called her back and told her and she said “I only had time to say a quick prayer but I was going to pray longer when I got home”. Because my friend’s heart was right before God, He heard her prayer. Only when our hearts are pleasing to God will He hear and answer our prayers. If our hearts are filled with unforgiveness, bitterness and anger, then we don’t have the right to ask Him for anything.

It is very important to surround ourselves with friends who love Jesus; friends who will stay with us through the bad times as well as the good times. I prayed for two years and asked God to please give me a friend who loved Him and who wouldn’t judge, criticize or condemn me, but would just be a loyal and true friend. He has answered this prayer for me. While it is important to have loving and caring friends, it is very important that we are loving and caring to others. God may want to use us to water someone’s heart with His unconditional Love. It is vital that we keep our hearts in tune with the heart of Jesus!

If your heart is breaking today and you can’t go another step as much as you want to, run into the waiting arms of Jesus. He will be faithful to kiss away your tears and replace the hopelessness and anguish in your heart with His hope and peace. He really does care about you. He Loves you so much that He died for you. Do you care about Him? Have you died to your desires and will and surrendered all that you are and everything you have to Him? Does He have first priority in your life? There is nothing, absolutely nothing in this life as urgent and crucial as spreading His Love to a world that is full of hurt, despair, loneliness, anguish, torment and hopelessness.

Joanne Lowe
January 7, 2007

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