Our Joy Complete
Man, witnessing can be hard sometimes huh? I mean think about it. You approach someone, maybe you don’t know them, maybe you don’t know what to say, and you could REALLY use a good dose of the Holy Spirit to give you the words. What if I mess up? What if this person starts to ridicule me? What if I do something wrong? I think all of us have thought this at one time or another when we’re asked how much we share the gospel to non-believers. I know I have.
A verse popped out at me the other day that really struck a chord with all of this. It got me thinking, “Wow, there go all my excuses out the window.” We’ll get there, don’t worry. Have you ever thought about what evangelizing was like in the days of the Bible? How difficult it must have been. I mean, shoot, you were risking your LIFE to tell people about the Gospel. How on Earth can someone summon up the courage for that?! I know, crazy, makes telling Sally at the grocery store about Jesus a little less intimidating huh? Now we get to the fun stuff. Why should we want to witness in the first place?
1 John: 3-4 really hit me in the heart when I read it the other day. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. Can you guess what verse did it for me? HOW WILD IS VERSE 4?! We write this to make our Joy complete. We have seen SO MUCH from God, we’ve been blessed SO MIGHTILY, that the only thing we can do is tell other people. So they can rejoice with us! So they can experience what we’ve experienced. To make our Joy complete. Powerful.
I’ll get straight to the point, every single one of us has stories where we’ve been blessed beyond belief. Every single one of us shouldn’t be able to WAIT to praise God and thank him for what he’s done. It feels good to be grateful, to bask in his love. But you know what else feels good? Sharing that, giving others the chance to experience. Bringing them into the Church. John said it himself, that’s what makes this great joy and great love complete. So next time you’re sitting there, wondering if you should take that opportunity or not….Make the joy Christ gives you complete.
Joey Ennulat, Director of Worship Arts
