Isaiah 58:10 — “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness…”
Everybody has urges. Some urges are selfish. Some pull us toward things that can hurt us or the people around us. But I believe the Holy Spirit also gives us another kind of prompting — holy urges that move us toward love, generosity, and purpose. Most importantly, He gives us the urge to pray. When the Holy Spirit prompts you, respond with urgency. God honors faithful zeal, even when we don’t get everything exactly right.
We live in a culture driven by immediate impulses: the urge to scroll, buy the latest gadget, upgrade our comforts, or simply look away when the needs around us feel too overwhelming. Our natural desires keep telling us to look inward and gather more for ourselves.
But followers of Christ are called to listen for the Holy Ghost’s prompting. Scripture challenges us to look beyond the immediate impulse and tune our hearts to the Holy Spirit — the urge to step out in love, support vulnerable people, witness, pray, and make a tangible difference in the life of someone who needs it.
This week I had one of those urges. I believe God is pressing something on my heart about an additional way to support our mission of helping the children here in Nicaragua. Donations have dwindled considerably, but I think God may be showing me something new to create more income to help more children. Pray for me on that.
Maybe your next urge can become someone else’s answered prayer. Sit down at McDonald’s and eat with a homeless woman. Buy groceries for a street beggar with her children clinging to her like wood ticks. Throw a birthday party for a prostitute. God loves unconventional spiritual warfare.
Some children struggle to get enough to eat. Financial pressure can interfere with school and force families to make choices no child should have to worry about. Talk about urges — these children know what it means to want food, security, opportunity, and hope.
That is where our temporary urges can become something lasting. When we feel the impulse to spend on one more comfort, we can pause and ask: Could some of this become a meal, school supplies, a uniform, or a safe place centered on faith and hope?
I have found that one of the best ways to get outside of unhealthy urges and discouragement is to bless somebody in the name of Jesus — immediately, as the Holy Spirit guides and urges. When we stop staring inward and start serving outward, our perspective changes.
So how can we practice that this week?
1. Pause and pray. Before reacting in anger or buying something you do not really need, stop for a moment. Pray for a family, a child, or a volunteer serving on the ground.
2. Audit your spending. Look at subscriptions or impulse purchases this week. Is there one expense you barely notice that could become something meaningful for somebody else?
I recently saw an advertisement claiming that Americans can lose a surprising amount of money every month to subscriptions they no longer use. I don’t know what the exact number is for every family, but the idea made me stop and think. How much do we all spend without even noticing?
God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows our impulses, our priorities, our weaknesses, our generosity, and the things that move our hearts. Let Him guide your ways.
Psalm 139:1–3 — “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.”
Maybe the goal is not simply to have fewer urges. Maybe it is to let God redirect them. To trade the urge to consume for the urge to care. To trade a moment of impulse for an act of compassion. To let something small — even something forgotten — in our hands become something meaningful in His.
Please pray with us as we seek God’s direction for this ministry — and if He puts one of these holy urges on your heart, act on it. There is a child here who can feel the difference.