Your 1 Degree

What is your heart temperature for the lost?

"The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart." - Rick Warren

Christians regularly give a variety of excuses for not sharing their faith; fear of rejection, fear of conflict, feeling unqualified or unprepared, etc. But perhaps the true most common reasons are thoughtlessness and apathy. We don't think much about those who do not know the gospel, and even when we do, we tend not to think their eternal state is of such great importance that it is worth spoiling the conversation or creating awkwardness in the relationship.

The historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt who witnessed and wrote on the trial of an infamous Nazi officer, coined the phrase 'the banality of evil', as she watched the trial expose the former officer's thoughtlessness: "[There is] a strange interdependence between thoughtfulness and evil... the activity of thinking as such...could be of such a nature that it ‘conditions’ men against evil-doing."

Penn Jillette, the magician and entertainer of the duo Penn & Teller, and outspoken atheist has famously said that he has no respect for Christians who don't share their faith. "If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize."

So, what's your heart temperature for the lost? It's time to be thoughtful about this. If you had to rate your heart for the lost on a scale from 1 to 10, what would you rate it? This is not meant to be an activity to bring about shame but awareness! Have you thought at all about those who don't know Jesus this week? If you have, have you done anything about it? Have you made plans to do something about it? By making a habit of checking your heart temperature for the lost, you are working against thoughtlessness and apathy.

What is your 1 Degree?

Pray
God over all people, conform my heart to mirror yours. Bring to my mind those who do not yet know you and cause me to yearn for their salvation as you do.