Responding to Grace

Ezra 1:5  .....-Everyone whose heart God had moved prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.  

This verse reminds us of something very critical when it comes to us and God. It is never a moment that I'm sitting down or out in the wonder of nature and then I spontaneously decide I am going to go and do this or do that for God. No, I must remember that my heart is moved by God and I respond to his moving of my heart as a result. And I must also remember that the moving of my heart usually only occurs after prayer, petition, and pleading to God and God reveals that he has heard me and moves my heart to do what he desires from me. There is also one more thing I must remember and that is what God moves my heart to do is not necessarily what he moves other hearts to do, and so I cannot decipher spirituality by whether others have been moved in the same way God moved me.  For instance, God has put in my heart that I need to pray with brothers regularly, and then he led me to them. However, I cannot look at those brothers who do not pray regularly with other brothers and conclude they are deficient in their faith. I cannot know if God has moved them or not, so I must be careful in not falling into judging of others.

Ezra 3:13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

When God's grace moves his people it has a real and moving impact on them and grace also has an impact on others as well. Notice that the impact of grace on his people does not result in the same expression. Here the people were responding to the same grace stimulus, yet some shouted with joy and  others were moved to weep. Grace is received in different ways by his people. For some the sheer joy that God loves them so much he showers them with grace is a moment to raise their heads and shout from the rooftops what God has done. While others may look at the deep darkness in their hearts and come to realize that grace reaches the lowest hell and their thankfulness is expressed through tears of deep appreciation. Yet, God used both responses to grace to impact those who were far away. There is no other conclusion possible except when God's grace moves his people it impacts others in some way.  They hear what God is doing with his people, and whether they like it or not the sound cannot be silenced nor the movement stilled.  There is another conclusion as well and that is God's grace is not something people can keep to themselves.  Yet it all starts with prayers, petitions, and pleadings from his people and when God reveals to them that he has heard them and touches them with grace their hearts are moved to do whatever he desires, some will be moved to shout with joy, and some will be moved to weeping, but both responses are due to God's revelation to his people that I have heard and now I am going to work powerfully through you in this way. Have I been so touched?