A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action

Whenever I think of “godly” people, I think of those whose faiths are blatantly obvious. The reason so many have turned their back on Christianity is because faith has become all religious talk with no action to back it up. Once you open your mouth to talk about Jesus/God/church, people automatically stick their fingers in their ears and sing, “I can’t hear you, la la la la!”

I hate to say it, but some of the most annoying people in the world are the people that CONSTANTLY talk about God or try to stick a Bible verse in every conversation. Don’t get me wrong, we SHOULD talk about God and how our relationship with Jesus has changed our lives, but at the right place and time. If your “God talk” is just annoying people and pushing them away, is it really right?

Jesus talked about religion and gave sermons when it was necessary. However, He spent most of His time feeding the hungry, healing the sick, having lunch with tax collectors, saving prostitutes from being stoned by religious leaders, etc. He didn’t need all the talk because people saw His faith. They didn’t need to hear it.

Evangelism has become such an ugly (for lack of a better term) concept for Christians. The biggest reason for that is because people are intimidated by it and define it incorrectly. Most people would define evangelism as telling others about Christ. In their minds they imagine themselves walking up to some stranger saying, “Hey, do you know Jesus?!” I would say the majority of people would cringe at that situation, including myself. What people need isn’t to be TOLD about Christ but to be SHOWN Christ. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a lot more people in my life be moved toward Christ because of something I did, not because of something I said. Actually, I’m not sure I could name a time when someone turned to Christ only because of something I said.

Jesus help me to be one of those people that I mentioned at the beginning: someone who is so desperately in love with You that those around her can’t help but see…and believe.

More Than We Can Bear?

I’m pretty tired of hearing “God doesn’t give us more than we can bear/handle.” Um…where in the world in the Bible does it say that? I’m pretty sure this misconception comes from 1 Cor. 10:13, which says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” Putting aside the fact for a minute that Paul was specifically talking about temptation of sin, let’s look at why people misquote this verse so much.

I think people only like to quote the first part of the verse because…well, it sounds nice. “You can get through this. God doesn’t give you more than you can bear.” However, focusing only on this part of the verse makes the focus totally on us. Saying “God doesn’t give us more than we can bear,” makes it sound like we are some kind of superhero species that can make it through any tough situation just because we’re awesome. If you focus on the entire verse, however, the focus turns toward God. GOD is faithful. HE will provide a way out so that you can endure it. I don’t know about you, but last time I used the word “endure,” I wasn’t talking about anything pleasant. I was probably talking about pain or some other type of suffering. God allows suffering in our lives, not to show us how strong we can be, but how strong HE is in our weakness (1 Cor. 12:10).

I don’t know if there is anything more annoying than someone trying to give me advice in a tough situation that that person doesn’t understand. I’m pretty sure a mother that just lost a child or someone going through a messy divorce doesn’t want to hear, “God doesn’t give you more than you can bear.” God allows all kinds of situations that we CAN’T bear to happen in our lives, because without those situations, we would never fully understand His power, or how much He cares for us. When you can’t bear what you’re going through anymore (because it will happen…a lot), cast your cares on His precious shoulders (1 Peter 5:7) because he CAN bear it, and He cares for You.