A city of the broken...

When most people think of the people of the city of East St. Louis, they think these words, murderers, thieves, promiscuous, gangsters. But, today as I was driving home from the murder trial of the young man that I have been visiting in jail, I believe God showed me the words He thinks of when He sees the people of this beautiful city. The words He thinks of are, broken, hurting and lost. His heart breaks for the people here even though they are doing wrong things. He sees the hurts that are piled one on top of the other on their broken hearts. He knows why they act the way they do and longs to draw them to Himself and fix their brokenness. I pray that He would let me see deeper into His heart for them, even though sometimes it hurts to truly see the hurting and the broken and what really goes on in their lives. I pray that He would use me to speak life, healing and truth into their hearts and that I would have the privilege of watching Him make them brand new.