Jazz Festival Obedience

Today my daughter and I went to the Jazz Festival to hand out gospel tracts. She's only 3 and there she was among the crowd of adults giving out tracts. It was a definitely an encouragement for me to see as her father.

I want to share 5 points with you that I've learned today that are key when doing personal evangelism.

1. Expect War
In Galatians 5:17 it tells us that "the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do"
The desires of my flesh were extremely strong today. I initially decided earlier in the day that I wasn't going to go. I was doing a Jonah. We need to recognize that our desire for comfort and ease are from our flesh and we need to fight it.

2. Submit to the Lord
James 4:7 says Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  The way we fight our flesh is to surrender our will's to our Lord. We are to submit ourselves to God. Which is easier said than done. But it needs to be done if we are faithful followers of Christ. Followers of Jesus follow Jesus. Jesus asks in Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" We need to fight against our flesh by surrendering to our Lord and doing what he says. After all, we call him Lord, don't we? If you're not submitted to God, you're not going to do what he says then don't call him Lord. Because he's not if you're not going to listen to him.

3. Rely on Him
1 Peter 5:7 calls us to Cast all our anxieties on him and once the Lord humbled me and I submitted to his Lordship I had a lot of anxieties. I'm all alone Lord, There's going to be too many people, I might see people I know, I might see colleagues, what will people think? The town's too small, what if I see kids from school, I'm not strong enough for this, I can't do this lord it's too much, it's too much for me, I'm going to look stupid. God calls us to cast our anxieties on him. All of them. Why? The verse tells us, because He cares for us. God cares for us, that's why he calls us to cast all our anxieties on him. So I did. I was pacing in our driveway and I whispered to him. "Father, help me to be strong and courageous".

4. Trust in the Lord
Mark 11:24 says Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.When I asked God for strength and courage. I truly had faith that God would give it to me. I believed that he heard me and it was accordance with his will. And he gave it to me, one moment I had given up, the next I had courage and strength. It was simply humbling myself, submitting to God, Relying on him through prayer and now trusting in his word and his character. Just like Hebrews 13:6 I could say confidently "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

6. Go in faith
James 2:17 tells us that faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. So real faith produces action, good deeds. So I knew what I needed to do and God gave me the strength to do it. When you're about to do some personal evangelism expect war, submit to the Lord, rely on him, and trust him then go.