"The man who has this heart puts out for Christ and His Church. He is willingly inconvenienced. He allows his comfort zone to be invaded. Sometimes he will work to the point of exhaustation" (100)

"Big hearts, the enlarged hearts that God uses, are laboring hearts which, though weary, will willing be expended as necessary...Ministering hearts are disciplined to labor, for they regularly move beyond their comfort zones, they put themselves in vulnerable spots, they make commitments which cost, they get tired for Christ's sake, they pay the price, they encounter rough seas. But their sails billow full of God's Spirit" (197)

"D.L. Mood's bedtime prayer on one occasion, as he rolled his bulk into bed, was, 'Lord, I'm tired! Amen." (197)

"Cultivate a small heart and life may be smooth sailing, but you will never experience the exhilaration of the wind of the Spirit in your sails." (201)-Disciplines of a Godly Man, Kent Hughs

Man, how I needed to hear this. I was laughing after reading D.L. Moody's prayer, "Lord, I'm tired, Amen!" I have many of those prayers. I'm so thankful that God uses tiredness and suffering to sanctify my soul. I can get so bitter sometimes and tell myself, "I deserve better!", but the reality is that I deserve God's judgment instead. Yet, God sent his Son to face my judgment that I might now become a child of God and labor for Him and His glorious Kingdom. I thought being tired was being a bad thing, and in some sense yes when one does not retreat; but even our Lord was wearied when he talked to the woman at the well in John 4. Despite his weariness, the Lord still ministered to a broken woman when HE was the one that needed to be served. Instead, the Lord serves the woman (Mark 10:45). True Greatness lies in servanthood, being incovienienced, and laboring for the the kingdom of God.

Father,
Give me a big heart. While you enlarge the pain, enlarge the joy. Help me endure.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.