It’s Not the Bad Preaching
1 Timothy 1:5 My purpose in telling you to do this is to promote love – the kind of love shown by those whose thoughts are pure, who do what they know is right, and whose faith in God is real.
I know people who rock up to church on a Sunday morning and they sing the songs, they listen to the sermons, they have a coffee and a chat with some friends after the service and then they go home … but come lunch time, they can’t remember a single word the preacher said.
Okay, sometimes that’s because it was bad preaching. But more often, it’s because they wander in, don’t even bother to bring a Bible. They look around distracted when that woman with the strange hair-do wanders in late. They’re thinking about this and about that. Looking at their watches.
When is this going to end? He should be finished in the next ten minutes, surely! I think I’ll go down to the shops after the service and buy that …
All the time God’s trying to talk to them … but they’re just not listening. And then we wonder why our lives are a mess. Then we wonder why God seems a million miles away; why we feel hollow and empty. Yeah?
If maybe you’ve become a little distracted, if you’ve stopped hearing God speak into your life, if the many cares of this world have somehow drowned out that small, still voice of the Spirit in your heart, I have a Word for you today:
My purpose in telling you to do this is to promote love – the kind of love shown by those whose thoughts are pure, who do what they know is right, and whose faith in God is real. (1 Timothy 1:5)
God hasn’t stopped speaking. He hasn’t fallen silent. Truly, His Word will wing its way into your heart and fill you with his love, give you the courage to be pure, the strength to do what’s right, if only you’ll listen to Him.
God wants our faith in Him to be real; to make a difference in this world. And if He seems to have fallen silent lately, get a revelation, it’s probably not because of the bad preaching.
God is still speaking to you and me today. Our part is to listen, to take it in, to be changed by Him, to pour out His love in purity, doing what is right. Our part is to live out an authentic faith. If only we’ll listen.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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