Many people reject Jesus because of bad experiences with church or very “religious” people.
In reflecting on this I realised that Jesus also had many bad experiences with religious people too. He spoke out the most against very religious people who did not really know what it is to truly follow His Father in heaven. And they were the ones who wanted to hang Him on a cross.
In my 37 year faith journey a number of religious people have let me down. Some churches have left me very disappointed, but Jesus never has!
Over the years I have spoken to a number of people who did not understand my trust and faith in God. I tried to explain, but they could not understand I could trust in a God I cannot see.
In time and after some reflection, I realised that I actually asked God to give me faith and for Him to reveal Himself to me.
Back in 1989, I sat on the edge of my bed and prayed the prayer below. It was at a time where I was very depressed and felt hopeless about my future. I prayed…
God, I do not know if You are real or not. But if You are real, please show me. Please reveal Yourself to me as I do not think I can live this life much longer. Amen
God did reveal Himself to me. I felt a peace come in to my room that was not there before. And over the coming weeks more things happened that made me believe God was real.
In essence I asked for faith. I asked God to show me that He was real. People talked to me about God out of the blue. A friend gave me a book that was exactly for the situation I was in, unbeknown to them. They said God prompted them to do it.
I also had a very strong desire to read the Bible which I never had before. And now when I read it I just “knew” it was true. I had a confidence and belief that the words of the Bible were God’s Words.
After a month or so I asked a friend from work if I could go to church with them. A few weeks later I asked how I could know God personally like I had heard someone say in a church service.
In a short time of a few months I had gone from an unbeliever who was not even sure there was a God, to someone who had a strong faith and who was being taught how to follow Jesus.
This all started with a simple prayer asking God to show me if He was real. Looking back some 37 years later I am so glad I did pray and ask God to show Himself to me. It has changed my whole life for the better.
If you are not sure if God is real, I would encourage you to pray the prayer below. I pray God will reveal Himself to you too.
Dear God, I do not know if You are real. Please reveal Yourself to me. Give me a revelation of who You are and what You have done for me. Bring people in to my life that can help me get to know You. Help me to see Your work in creation. Help me to read the Bible and see You. Please reveal Yourself to me and give me faith in You. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen
In the coming week I would encourage you to visit my Finding Salvation page too. This will help you to understand what God has done for you and how much He loves you. You can find it here.
I would encourage you to visit my Bible readings page too. You can find it here.
I just started a new YouVersion plan today on the Bible app. It is called, “All about the Holy Spirit” and is only five days. Here is the description…
God’s Spirit is with you the moment you accept Jesus. But what is the Holy Spirit’s purpose, character, and relationship with us? In this Bible Plan, let’s explore 5 common questions about the Holy Spirit, and learn more about who He is and what He does. This original Bible Plan was created and provided by YouVersion.
When I preach I always prepare a PowerPoint presentation to go with it. I find this helps people to follow along and it keeps them engaged.
I always try to use a nice image like above and the title at the start when doing my introduction. Then I use a different slide for each point. This might include the point, a key verse and a statement, a quote, a Greek word, or an image.
Using PowerPoint has really improved my preaching and it helps people to take notes. To give you an idea of what I mean, you can click here to see a PDF example of one of my messages.
As a special way to keep people engaged, sometimes I intentionally spell words wrong in the PowerPoint and ask people to call out when they see one. If they are right I might throw lollies out to them. This is usually quite popular as you can imagine.
If you cannot afford PowerPoint, LibreOffice has a free version that is compatible with the Office version. This is what I generally use to do mine. It allows me to save it as a .ppt file and also a PDF.
