A couple of months ago, we had our Area Staff Conference for all of Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe and Russia in Slovenia. It was encouraging to escape the gray winter of Prague for warmer temps and also a change of scenery (see pics), but it was more encouraging to see friends and also receive some encouragement from these same friends!
Over the last 16 months I have been though a roller coaster of heartbreak, failings, and more. Honestly, it’s felt like more than I can handle. Thankfully, God is big and has kept me standing and moving forward through it all, but in the midst of all of this I’ve learned that I need to preach the Gospel to myself. While, in Slovenia, I was once again challenged to preach to myself as I move through life and ministry in a hard place.
A friend of mine challenged me to preach three things to myself on a regular basis:
- God is sovereign.
- God is good, in the midst of it all. Even when it seems dark and that God isn’t in the midst of it all, preach to myself that God knows and He is still good. This sounds “Sunday schoolish,” but I do forget often that God is good. Thus the need to preach it to myself again and again.
- God is my advocate, He is for me in all of life and in all of these events (think 1 John 1). Again maybe “Sunday schoolish,” but I can see a pattern in my life where I forget that God is for me, He is my advocate, even when the “wicked” prosper (Jeremiah 12:1 and Psalm 73, GOD IS STILL MY ADVOCATE!)
So how about you? What truths of God and the Gospel do you have to preach yourself? Use the comments and let’s start a discussion on this, I’m interested in hearing if this hits home with others and what you might add to the conversation!
Be a Revolution and Preach the Revolutionary Love of Jesus to yourself….!
