When I tell people about how God broke my heart for reaching the lost and called me to be a missionary, I tell them this:
“I always knew that there were people in the world who had never heard the gospel, but not once in the six years since my salvation had I shared the truth with the ones I knew needed to hear it.”
I mean, I was still new in the faith. Besides, inviting people to church counted, because if they came they would surely hear the gospel message presented from a more seasoned Christian, right? And it’s not as if I didn’t care about those people’s salvation. I mean I got really sad when I thought about them spending an eternity away from God. Surely that was proof that I cared… right?
As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart. Proverbs 27:19.
Hm.
I guess I didn’t care. Not really.
But I’ve started truly caring. I know that I care because I’m taking that head knowledge and putting it into action. Some days I find myself making excuses as to why I can’t share the gospel with someone, but God continues to grow me and remind me that He is stronger than any of my misgivings, and that He is powerful enough to save even the hardest of hearts.
While God has been reminding me of those things, He has also been at work reminding Nicholas that prayer is powerful, and that having a strong prayer life is crucial.
Let me just jump right in and say this: if we don’t pray fervently for the things that we say we care about, we are in essence making ourselves out to be more powerful than God.
Nicholas told me, “I realized that each time I start my day without praying, or each time I go into a spiritual situation without praying I’m telling God, ‘I’ve got this God. I don’t need you today.’”
I’ve got this. I don’t need you today.
We’d never verbally say that we’re more powerful than God, but remember – one’s life reflects the heart. Each time we do something without praying, we’re doing it in our own power. We’re telling God “I’ve got this.”
But we don’t “got this”!
“No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine… I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This is the part where I jump up, mouth agape, arms up in the air, and do a big ol’ face palm.
Seriously though, Jesus said it himself in John chapter 15! We can do nothing apart from Him. So, why aren’t we praying for Him to go before us in all things?
There’s an illustration about faith that Nicholas uses in ministry:
If you stand next to a chair and say, “I know that this chair can hold me up”, yet you never sit in that chair, do you really have faith in it?
You can say all day long, “I know the gospel is important and life changing. I know that God is powerful enough to do the impossible.” But until you actually put action to your words; until you share the gospel; until you make prayer the priority of your life – your words are just words. You have no faith in what you say.
Also, if you truly care about something you will be willing to make sacrifices in order to see a change.
You’ll stay up for hours and lose sleep so that you can pray for loved ones. You’ll let yourself be uncomfortable for a time so that the gospel can be heard.
You’ll ignore Satan’s whispers of, “You don’t know enough of the Bible to share… Just pray for them tomorrow… You can’t afford to give any extra money… If you talk to them it’s going to be a really awkward and uncomfortable conversation” and you’ll do it anyway.
The wonderful thing about God is that he can take your head knowledge and turn it into heart knowledge if you’ll let Him. Then that heart knowledge turns into action, and you can truly see the reflection of your heart.