Ever have one of these days?
You have a perfect message, inspiring, interesting, and important. You start off with a few good one liners and then get into the meat of the message hoping to hit the heart of the audience. Smiles, an occasional nod, and even note taking are sure signs that your reaching them. A positive comment or two after confirms your success. You know you brought the message God wanted you to bring.
BUT! This particular time you get blank stares. The smiles you see are at their neighbor as they nod off to sleep. You see note passing, not note taking. And confidence in your message and your self plummet. AARRGGHHH! You scream on the inside as you try to stay interesting and entertaining on the outside. You're loosing them, step it up! So you try harder but the response doesn't change. You finally roll to a stop with the last word. Then suddenly you hear crickets, even if no one else does. You know they're there. You go home and replay the message over in your head as you drift off to sleep saying "Where did I miss it?".
Next time that happens remember this:
"Rain and snow fall from the sky & don't return without watering the ground. They cause the plants to sprout and grow, making seed for the farmer and bread for the people. The same thing is true about the words I (GOD) speak. They will not return to me empty. They make the things happen that I want to happen and they succeed in doing what I send them to do."
~Isaiah 55:10-11
We all get frustrated when we talk of God's greatness and don't get the response we think we should. We have to remember that we can't always see how God's word is working. Even though we can't exactly see how the rain and snow affect the ground, we know that it does something. At first the rain may seem to just roll off the dry ground but eventually it starts to soak in and make things grow. We have faith in the rain.
God's word may seem to roll of the hearts of those you talk to you, and maybe even yours. But eventually it will begin to soak in and start a new growth.
Remember that next time your talking with a friend or talking to a crowd. Have confidence, no matter the immediate response, in knowing God has sent his word through you. It will not return to Him empty but will do what He wants it to do. Have faith in God's word as well as the rain.
3 comments:
I think blind faith is definitely a key factor in trusting in God. A lot of people want an immediate answer from God, the way 'they want Him to answer'....God works in mysterious ways. I pray to God, and my answers come through different sources, whether through a serman, someone's words, a t.v. show, or just simply hearing that 'still voice'. Sometimes God even puts a little humor in answering someone's prayers. He was the one who invented humor... :)
Great post!
I can relate . . . I know that feeling. But at least if nothing else through studying and presenting a message there is a change in us. Maybe our lives lived out won't fall flat even if our words do at times.
Your right. I think our Lives our the key. Our words are to be the echos of our lives not the other way around.
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