For many people, it’s hard to start a conversation with a stranger. Even after all these years, I’m still not entirely at ease starting.
Like anything else though, it’s a skill that one can learn.
Hard as it is, is it not worth learning for the sake of the lost, and the sake of the gospel?
I missed posting my daily blog post yesterday. It’s a bit discouraging, since I just started this blog less than a week ago.
Reminded of an old piece of wisdom from my pastor: Get up and do the next best thing.
Peter, James, and John fell asleep three tines while Jesus was praying in Gethsemane. He reproved them, but didn’t dwell on it long in the end.
“Rise! Let us go!”
If He doesn’t dwell long on it, why should we? And especially in the less significant failures?
I forgot where I parked my car and caused a lot of trouble today. I forget a lot of things, actually.
Two thoughts:
1) It’s worth it to do everything we can to not forget the most important things.
2) It’s so good that our Father never forgets us. We are important to Him.
People typically send out a search party. And they keep looking until the lost one is found. It’s an urgent matter.
We need to remember this when it comes to spiritually lost people.
My eldest daughter is four this year. She’s been talking a lot more to me lately, which is a joy.
Something I’ve noticed: when she talks to me, she mostly uses the words she heard from me.
When I’m not sure what to say to my Heavenly Father, speaking His words back to Him is a good place to start.
Maybe it’s even the best place to start.
After all, that’s how we learned to speak to our fathers.
*Ht to Dr. Donald S. Whitney and the Family Life podcast (here) which is a fantastic summary of his recent book, Praying the Scriptures (here).
Pray, wait, and be alert.
There might not be many people, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
You only need one other person to have a great conversation.
It feels nice to have more options, but it could just be that God wanted to make sure you just got to talk to that one person.
In evangelism, two kinds of talk are important:
1) Talking to people about God.
2) Talking to God about people.
I do the former just about everyday. But to be honest, it’s only His blessing through the latter that makes our talks touch hearts.
We must guard against neglecting the latter.
After all, it’s His work, not ours.
Ed's Journal 