We always conclude our Wednesday night youth services with a devotional, and one of our young men usually speak. On April 26th, Ian Colwell spoke on the topic mentioned above. I loved his message and asked him for a copy of his notes to share with y’all (Full disclosure, they’ve been edited). Here it is:
“First, I have an analogy that paints a picture for y’all. What happens when you go workout or practice one day and then don’t go back for a long time? Do you feel like you should be stronger the next time you go? It doesn’t help you improve at whatever you’re doing if you are just going whenever you feel like it. We can’t just work out once a week and expect change.
The same principle applies with going to church. You can’t just show up being ‘all for Christ’ on Sundays and Wednesday nights but go the rest of the week acting like the world.
To improve and grow in whatever you’re doing, you have to be consistent at it. This includes reading your Bible, praying, doing what God has commanded for us to do, etc. If you want to see and feel changes in your body when you go to the gym, you have to stay active every day!
Let’s say you do go to practice or workout for only one day a week for a couple months. You can’t blame the machines or the practice drills you’re doing, the only person you can blame is yourself. The same goes with being a Christian. If you don’t see or feel a change with your soul, you cannot blame God. The only person to blame is yourself.
There’s really no excuse for us to have if we do this.
‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other…’ (First part of Luke 16:13 NIV)
You cannot be on the fence about following God. You’ve got to be all in!
‘Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 10:32–33 NIV)
We can’t just follow and acknowledge God when it’s easy. We have to trust and follow him through everything.
I just want to give y’all this message for y’all to think about whenever you feel like this.
God is on our team!”
In case you haven’t noticed, we have the most incredible group of young people on the planet. God is already using them to do big things for the Kingdom. Let’s follow their lead.
In Christ,
Jonathan Anderson