Please bear with me as I preach to myself today…
“Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’ So the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say…” (Exodus 4:10-12)
The LORD has given to each and every believer His Great Commission to “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt. 28:19) And He has promised to be with us, even to the end of the ages. All He has asked us to do is to be His mouthpiece, to open our mouth and speak what He teaches us to say. Yet I, like Moses, tend to come up with excuses to keep my mouth shut…
What if they get angry and reject me?…
What if they revile me or try to hurt me or cast me out of their country?…
What if my mind goes blank and I can’t think of what to say?…
What if they ask me hard questions about God or the Gospel that I don’t know how to answer?
But how often do I ask myself,
“If I don’t speak up, will this person have another opportunity to hear the Gospel?”
“What if they listen and cling to my words and receive the message that Jesus has made a way of salvation for them?”
If they reject the message they are rejecting the Lord, not the messenger. And if they receive the message, they are receiving life from the dead revival. All we have to do is open our mouth and let God speak through us. Yes, there will be those who are blind and deaf to the message, but there will also be those who embrace the message and breathe life from God for the first time. God has made every provision for us to deliver His message to them to either accept or reject. The Message Bible puts it this way,
“Don’t be naive. Some people will question your motives, others will smear your reputation–just because you believe in Me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you-and me-a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.” (Matthew 10:18-20)
Be bold and courageous! Preach the Word in season and out of season! Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to open your mouth! If you’re still timid, you can pray as Paul did in Ephesians 6:19, “that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel…” You get the conversation going and let the Holy Spirit take over from there. You might be surprised at what He can accomplish through your yielded tongue.
–dmrf