To Whatever End pt. 5

     The human brain naturally thinks about what is effective and what isn't; what works and what doesn't. What is the best use of my time, and what isn't? It can become dangerous when we ask questions like, "How effective is sharing the gospel?" "How do I even know if sharing the gospel is affecting someone?" The thing about God is that He is outside of our time and our understanding. There are things on this side of Heaven that we may never understand. There are going to be times when we question why something does and doesn't happen; why someone does and doesn't react a certain way. When sharing the gospel, it is so important not to get into this mindset. God is the only one who is capable of knowing what is truly inside other people's hearts. We have to be confident enough in our God that when we say yes, we believe He will do the rest. Someone else's "yes" is not on your shoulders, but saying yes to God and following where He calls and directs you is.

    I am reading this book called, "Radical" by David Platt, I highly suggest you give it a read! He says, "Somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves." Faith requires action. One of the best ways to grow our faith is by sharing the gospel even when we are uncomfortable, even when we feel inadequate, and even when we fear we don't know what to say. Faith isn't in the comfortable, it is in the uncomfortable. Only when we step out of our comfort zones are we required to rely fully on God.

    In this book, there is also a statistic about sharing the gospel. It is the chart breakdown that shows the number of people in the world. The author shows that if it started with one person and they shared the gospel with one person, then that person shared with one person, and so on, and the chain never broke, it would take 32 years for every single persona on this Earth to have heard the name of Jesus. Wow. That astounds me. 32 years is also the number of years that Jesus walked this Earth. 

    When I was reading this statistic, my immediate thought was, "Where have we gone wrong?" Our calling as mankind, the reason we are on this Earth is to praise God and to make disciples who make disciples. We have been on this Earth a whole lot longer than 32 years and there are still over 3.2 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus from someone else. That absolutely breaks my heart. 

    So often I hear this idea throughout the Christian faith, "If I say no, God will still make it happen." The thing wrong with this idea is that it plants the lie that it is okay to say no to God and what He is calling us to do. I believe that God does not need us to accomplish His will. Many people have had revelations and dreams from God and who have accepted Him as their savior without any human intervention, that is how powerful our God is. He is powerful and capable enough to move people's hearts whether we say "yes" or "no". The beautiful picture though, is that He invites us to work alongside Him. Who are we to say no to God? Who are we not to listen to His calling on our lives? Let's dedicate our lives to saying yes to Jesus, yes to the gospel, and yes to spreading His word. 

    Some of us have grown up in a Christian household. For others, you have found Jesus and are seeking Him in your life. I wonder if that one person didn't tell someone about Jesus. What if that one person didn't share the gospel and the chain reaction was that I would have never heard it? It takes one person. One person can change generations of lives. Be the person to say yes, be the person to make a Kingdom impact, be the person. 

    Don't let the lie of the enemy tell you that sharing the gospel is a waste of your time. On average, it takes 12-15 times for someone hearing the gospel to commit their lives to Christ. You may be the 8th time someone has heard about Jesus, the 15th, or even the first, but that does not mean that you carry the burden of someone else's "yes". We are called to plant the seed and God comes along to water and weed. If you look at Jesus's ministry, He was a gentleman, He didn't heal anyone who didn't want to be healed, He didn't wait for people to follow Him if they weren't eager to, and He didn't force anyone to believe in Him either, He gave them the opportunity and the choice. Don't let a no turn you away from continuing the calling on your life, but be reminded that it may just be someone's number 8. I don't want to live my life any other way than fully abandoned to God and His will. I know that my life is meaningless unless it is spent loving God, loving others, and sharing the gospel.