Fear v. Love
December 3, 2007
2 Timothy 1:7 VW
(7) For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
The devil wants you to be a coward you know.
As I have mentioned a few times I volunteer in my churches children's department running sound. My interaction with the kids is minimal a lot of the times, but a few months ago we started doing small groups and I had to face a group of them and talk to them about the lesson that was coming up and take prayer requests. I basically did a little talking about the lesson but left the major stuff to the staff to take care of. Of course, especially with six year old kids prayer requests can take a long time, there are a lot of sick pets out there. Asking them if they wanted to receive Jesus was out of the question. Leave that for the specialists.
Last week however, things changed at a service that I was not even supposed to be working at. I showed up and they were short so I stayed. As praise and worship ended and we were about to go to the small groups, I heard the lead teacher say, team ministers, do not forget to ask the children if they know Jesus. Well, never let it be said that I do not follow orders.
See I did not think that I was proper enough to lead other peoples kids to the Lord. Leading mine was one thing but other kids. The paid staff do that the best, I might say something wrong to the kids.
So I had that group of six year old children bow their heads, and I ask them if any of them would like to accept Jesus as their savior and begin a new life. Three children rose their hands. I stumbled a bit, not sure what the protocol was for this. But never let the kids smell fear. We broke from the groups and I notified the associate children's pastor that we had three children that wanted to know Jesus. I figured he would take over.
"Have you had them pray the prayer yet?"
Well no."
"OK, you do that while I get the paperwork"
Well, I stumbled a bit more but made it through it. You see, the devil had built up a fear in me that I could not do what God has called me to do. It does not matter if I get them at 6 or 60, they are souls that need to brought into the kingdom.
Yesterday, as we broke in the groups, a little voice inside me said, it was a fluke. That the kids would not respond again so don't even try. Good thing I do not listen to little voices that try to install fear in me. As the clock ticked down and I was running out of time, I thought, do not try it again there is not enough time. I quickly asked the children if any of them wanted to know Jesus as their savior. Two hands went up.
If I listen to fear, then I am not loving to those children. God did not give me a spirit of fear. He gave me power to talk to those children. He gave me love to help them accept Jesus and a sound mind not to listen to the Devil try to shut me down.
Is there something that you fear in your life?
