I have listening to a lot of messages lately and been under a lot of preaching lately. I think God might have showed me something because I think I might speak for many of us in America.
Preachers often preach these hard, “this is the answer for what is wrong with Christianity or what is wrong in America or what is wrong with you” because they believe in their message. Most times they are right. Everyone is wired differently, and hence some might emphasize one thing about God more than something else. Some might emphasize holiness, others missions, some on the family. I am supposed to do it all, but I find my Christianity today can be very shallow and frustrating that I am not where I believe God wants me to be because before I can get victory in one area, then I start chasing another area I know I am weak in.
These competing messages can keep us balanced perhaps, but one thing I find in today’s Christianity is we tend to sit and soak from powerful message to powerful message instead of hearing a message and living out our Christianity and giving it out to the next person. When we are busy serving and giving out what we are given, God can fine tune where we might be a bit off base, and God can give us more without it leaving us feeling stale and confused.
We are supposed to be focused on the great commission and instead we tend to hear a great message on Sunday, sit and watch the ball game or just go back to our lives like you just watched a good movie, and go back to service again and hear some more. And often we don’t go beyond that, or America would be revived by now.
Preachers preach their hearts out but often it seems like it falls on deaf ears. That isn’t always the case — it is just we are so busy in America that we often do not take the time or we do not have the time to apply what God showed us before we get the next message. And if we didn’t do anything from the last time God showed us anything, we should be shocked we even heard anything at all this time. Yet, God in his long suffering seems to be patient and wait for us to “get it.”
Pray maybe I “got it.”
And like putting out fires, we hear one message and think, “that is what we need to do!” and then we don’t apply it, and then we hear the next message, and now “that is what we need to do!” We can soon become confused what we are supposed to even be doing, and we can get discouraged because we now have all these burdens and convictions and challenges and goals and we didn’t even remember to bring a gospel tract with us.
Don’t quit church, but realize it is a start, not an end.
We need to get out of the barracks, get off the bench, get out of the pew, and get out and evangelize and share what we have been given.
MJI