Send Me, Lord. I Beg You, Send Me.

WHEN THE SAINTS

Sara Groves

Lord I have a heavy burden of all I've seen and know

It’s more than I can handle
But your word is like a fire

Shut up in my bones
and I can’t let it go

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought

I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars
And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

Lord it's all that I can't carry and cannot leave behind

It all can overwhelm me
But when I think of all who’ve before and lived the faithful life

Their courage compels me

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought

I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars

I see the shepherd Moses in the Pharohs court
I hear his call for freedom for the people of the Lord

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

I see the long quiet walk along the Underground Railroad
I see the save awakening to the value of her soul

I see the young missionary and the angry spear
I see his family returning with no trace of fear

I see the long hard shadows of Calcutta nights
I see the sister standing by the dying man's side

I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
I see the man with a passion come and kicking down the door

I see the man of sorrows and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
and when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them

Lord, when I think of all those who, before me, have lived the courageous and purposed driven life; as I stop to reflect on the saints who have walked the long and grueling road of a royal child, destined to serve their King, I stand in awe.  A whispered, "Selah" escapes my lips and weakness overtakes my knees, as I fall onto the floor under the weight of your majestic glory.  The spirit of Isaiah creeps into my heart forcing my lips to exasperate his missionary declaration, "Here am I. Send me!"  Still, You do no cease to pour into my mind's eye vision stapled to vision, photographs tied to clips of film, and prayers entangled with desperate cries from every people group and spoken in every tongue.

[Papa] Yes, Beloved.  My answer is always yes. ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ (Matt. 7:7)  If you long for an unquenchable desire for the nations, the answer is YES! If you yern to sprint, dive, even fall head first into a deeper, unending journey of intimacy with Me, the answer is YES!  Sweetheart, Beloved, the answer to your longings, passions, humble (sometimes even demanding) desires [requests] is undeniably Yes.  Do not relent in your request of my love.  Do not stop contending for my gift of unexplanitory peace or my almost unbearable joy.  Yes!  What is it that I say in my Word, you know (He says to me winking and I know He intends to tell me that I should know for I should be in His Word much more than I am) in 1 Corinthians 1:20 “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.  And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”  My answer is always YES and AMEN!  Sweetheart, *laughing* you have no idea of the expanse, the depth, the sheer magnitude of my love for you.  Yes and amen!  I am always awaiting your petitions with yeses and amens. Press into my love, Baby.  There, there is provision.  There, there is abundance.  There, *laughing followed by a sigh* is all I hold in store for you, like a dam on the edge of bursting with a flood of my presence; ready to fill and saturate every corner of your life.  Do not give in!  And do not give up!  Press into me and you will receive.  Press into my love and you will never lack.  Run to my arms with your anger and your painful tears.  [Jesus] There, as you sit on our Father’s knee and lay your head against His chest, listening to the beat of His heart, allow your shoulders to shake violently and your sobs to break free in torrents.  Do not be afraid of baring the scars of war, for I will meet you there.  I’ve already won redemption and our Father’s grace is stronger than sin, ANY sin.  Don’t worry, we’ll show off our battle wounds together, selah, for all of them give glory to our Papa.

[Papa] Focus on Me and Christ’s healing will envelope your heart.  Pursue Me and my love for my people will, like a utter mess of sticky honey, splatter onto the people you encounter.  Always remember that there is more to Me than you have already encountered and there is more of Me for you to receive.  Do not relent.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah 6:8