Speaking with Faith

I find that when I am reading and thinking about the wonder and reality of God by myself, it can be very surreal. God, the things that are true about him, and my prayers to Him seem to be stuck inside my head. They do influence my life, but only because they are in my head. Christianity becomes an individualistic, intellectual construct inside of me.

This problem is compounded when the people of God around me don’t speak of Him at all or alternately joke or argue casually about points of theology. Even when they do speak about Him, either of Him working in them or of things about Him in general, my internalization may still remain. They are not actively confronting me with the God who is, but just indicating that they share the same intellectual construct.

What I need is for the real people of God (whom I can see and hear and feel) to speak truth specifically, personally, and in a way that is full of faith into my life. When they do that (as I have experienced before), the reality of God grows far too large to be contained inside of my head. I am forced to respond to and worship and serve the God who is outside of me and bigger than me.

If that is true when people speak to me, should I not then seek ways to speak to other people? I must seek to make God near to them, to help them see that He is not just inside of their minds, but He is living and active in the world. Every time I open my mouth, what I say and the way that I say it implies something about God to the people around me. Is He real? Is He near? Is He powerful? Does He care? Who around me needs to be reminded of this from outside of themselves? Where is God calling me to bring His truth specifically to those around me? As God helps me to know Him and uses His people in that process, so I ought to help others to know Him, that through us, God would build a community full of living, vibrant, dependent faith.

Will you join me honoring the Lord by speaking about Him to those around you in a way that demonstrates that He is alive and near?