Growth

Prove It

As Christians, we are often told of the importance of sharing our faith with others. Although this possibility conjures up all sorts of anxiety and trepidation, I don’t think that the most difficult audiences are those who are unfamiliar with faith. Generally speaking, they may be more willing to hear about the trust we have in God because human beings tend to be curious by nature. I think the more difficult audience are those who know Christ’s teachings but choose not to follow them. The disciples who abandoned Jesus after their disillusionment (John 6:66) were probably more reluctant to believe in a resurrected Savior than were the Gentiles whom Peter and Paul set out to teach. When we are familiar something we tend to disregard anything that conflicts with our already confirmed perceptions. We let our bias dictate our input and so willfully or not, we are reticent to change our point of view.

The reason that discussing Christianity with a former professing adherent is difficult is because their argument against faith often takes faith out of the equation. Knowing the Scriptural account, they know that many things can not be proved; believing their validity requires faith. Yet often times they use the inability to scientifically demonstrate certain tenets of the Christian faith as a reason to refuse to follow Christ and we often get caught in circular arguments where in order to win them to the kingdom we try to prove what can only be attested to by faith. Faith, after all, is the evidence of things hoped for. If they have shun all hope, then the evidence will remain hidden.

A.W. Tozer put it this way, “The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof,
and the worshiping heart needs none.” May all our hearts be filled with worship.

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Growth

Be Quiet

Growing up my sister and I weren’t allowed to say “shut up”. In fact, I, along with numerous other students, had to write an essay in my mother’s class for using those forbidden words. My mom’s opinion was that the words “shut up” were neither nice nor necessary, so we didn’t need to say it. Like so many other things in life, she was probably right.

Nowadays, when I do hear someone use the formally outlawed phrase, its usually at the point of exasperation. We encourage another to stop talking because we are no longer interested in what they have to say. We want them to stop so that we can start. More often than not the purpose of telling someone to be silent is to allow us to express our opinion or present our philosophy. Rarely do we tell another to be quiet because it’s what’s best for them.

This, however, is exactly what God instructs us to do. He tells us to be silent before His presence (Zechariah 2:13) and the reason for the admonishment isn’t because He’s in a hard-fought battle with us for supremacy, it’s because He wants us to more fully appreciate His presence. We are silent because words can not express His majesty. We are silent because even our questions would do an injustice to His wisdom. We are silent because what He was to say is pure and we should be waiting patiently for Him to speak. We are instructed to be quiet for our good, not His. He knows that its only when our mouths are closed that our other senses will be more in-tuned to recognize His holiness.

Zechariah commands the people to be quiet because God is rising from His holy dwelling. God, in other words, is getting ready to act. And when that happens, no words are necessary.

———-

Silence promotes the presence of God, prevents many harsh
and proud words, and suppresses many dangers in the way of
ridiculing or harshly judging our neighbors… If you are
faithful in keeping silence when it is not necessary to speak,
God will preserve you from evil when it is right for you to
talk.
… Francois Fenelon (1651-1715)

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