Bible Study and the conversations during and afterward really made me think this morning. Do I spend too much time trying to change someone or evangelize someone so they may know Christ? Shouldn’t our prayers be “God help me to exude you in such a way that others may see you and come to know you? God help me show only the kind of love you can give in order for hardened hearts to be changed?” God’s in the business of fixing broken hearts. Shouldn’t that be our business then if we are to be growing to be more and more like Him on our Christian walk with Him? When I first walked in the doors of AA I was told that I shouldn’t try to figure it out. The intellectuals don’t make it. Well to that’s a lot like how I need to be living out my faith. Faith is believing in something I can’t see. When I get wrapped up in where something is placed in my space of corporate worship or get hung up on how people are worshiping around me or stuck in the rules or laws of a specific religion or on how things are supposed to be done than I’m trying to hard to figure it all out intellectually. If I were to spend that same amount of energy in getting to know God my Father I’d be a whole lot better off. Mercy isn’t meant for us to figure out. It’s meant for us to have. Grace isn’t meant for us to try to understand. It’s meant for us to receive. When we can stop trying to figure things out & intellectualize everything we can start living like God would have us live. I have to surrender my pride and my plans so the world will see only the Holy Spirit living and working through me. In His time (not mine) others heart others will be softened and yet others will be brought to faith in Jesus Christ that leads to their salvation. I think too many of us attend churches where the pews are filled with people who are hurting so bad, but trying so hard to figure out what it is their neighbor has. I only know this because I used to be the one asking all these questions trying to figure it all out.
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Fortitude Ministries 
Take heart, it will never be your efforts that change a person’s heart. If that were the case, even “superevangelists” would be at a loss. The good news is that it is the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word that you speak to your neighbor that changes hearts. “I don’t know” is often one of the best theological answers one can give. When it comes down to it, the Gospel is a pretty simple proclamation: that Jesus took our place suffering death and even damnation on the cross for us sinners and in place of our guilt he gives us His righteousness, and just as He rose from the dead we will be raised too… not even death can have a hold on us.
In other words, if you know the Creed, you know the heart of the Gospel. The wonderful thing is that the Gospel is simple enough for even a toddler to wade in and understand while at the same time being so deep it can drown an elephant. So drink up, you’ll have a lifetime of learning, but in the end when it comes to the proclamation of the Gospel, we are but God’s tool.
I’m not fretting…believe me…just sharing my thoughts after so many conversations in a short amount of time this morning about others who are trying to so hard to change hardened hearts or are becoming weary about convincing another to believe in more than just God. It’s unbelievable how easily we can get wrapped up in what is the proper way to baptize or take communion or worship when it’s not about how we do things as much as it is about why. Is God’s love overflowing out of me? Is there something different about me that people who cross my path are going to notice? I surrendered a while back & strive to stay out of the way to let God work. I’m not perfect by any means, but am going deeper full of anticipation of all the things God has in store for us.