This week a teenage boy who attends our church and six other young people were in a roll over car accident. Three of the children, including the boy from our church, are in critical condition. The father of that boy gathered the families of those kids and asked our pastor to come speak to them all. He shared this in our Sunday worship. He mentioned Job's friends sitting with Job in silence for seven days, and said there are some situations where no words are sufficient. He asked us to pray for him as he was to speak to them because if God does not speak to the families, he we wouldn't have anything to say.
Thank God that He does speak through us from time to time. I recently listened to Ravi Zacharias tell of multiple times when God spoke through him and he had not thought beforehand about what he said. But God does not just speak through preachers.
Hebrews 1 reminds us that in the past God spoke through prophets at many times and in various ways. But God does not just speak through prophets.
I want to be the best writer I could ever be. I would like to be smart, even wise. And I would not mind being a popular writer. But more than any of these things, I would like God Himself to speak through me, at least from time to time.
I don't wish to stomp my foot here, but I do have some thoughts about this. We need a humility that recognizes that we have our greatest impact when God speaks through us. I believe it is dangerous, especially when we write, to tell people God spoke through me. But I should be able to quietly give thanks when I realize that He has spoken through something I wrote.
God must decide when and if He speaks through us, but I think it is important to realize that He may choose to do that. And that realization should lead me to ask Him to do just that. I am not sure I shouldn't regularly ask Him to speak through me.
What about writing something that isn't about God at all? I have written a number of stories about other things that interest me. I think God can speak quietly about character or truth or any number of other things through stories that are not so in people's faces. Tolkien used to say he was creating an “evangelicum” in his writings. His imaginary histories don't have a trace of the gospel, but he deals with deep issues of life. If God chooses, He can touch the lives of readers through much lighter fare than The Lord of The Rings.
http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/
http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/
http://daveswatch.com/
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ReplyDeletehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-herbic-b078aa12
DeleteAs a fellow Christian writer, I want to encourage you today. You are doing a great work for Him. I thank you for your blog and writings and hope that we can pray together for one another's ministry. God is an all-powerful. We are so fortunate to be able to communicate with Him and to hear His Precious Voice. God bless you abundantly, I pray...
DeleteThank you, Teresa. I do pray for God to use you mightily.
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ReplyDeleteBeautiful words... and yet, so true about the silence of merely being present. And so powerful when I risk my discomfort, fear, and ego to humbly speak on His behalf, at His request.
ReplyDeleteThank you David
Thank you, Mark.
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