Troubled to Amazed
A few weeks ago I (Tim) was troubled. I mean, really troubled. I’d been discipling some guys new to the faith who seemed like they were trying to straddle the fence between life in Christ and worldly living, and for months it felt like we were getting nowhere. They were into some very serious immoral behavior. I was so troubled that I decided to throw out the typical agenda for our weekly meeting one evening. Instead of working through the Word or trying to coach them through life scenarios, another leader and I just prayed with them. Prayer is common in our meetings, but this time we were desperate. We prayed most of the meeting, knowing God was going to have to do something miraculous in their hearts.
Over the following week I felt a strong desire to talk about the fear of the Lord at our next meeting. The more I studied the topic, the more my heart burned to share this with the men. The thing is, I never needed to.
We sat down at our next meeting and there was something different about the men I’d be troubled over. As soon as we started, they testified that for the first time, they realized they lacked the fear of the Lord. They said the knowledge of God and the sense of His presence became so strong during the week that they purged their homes of evil contents. Right there in our meeting they submitted themselves to true accountability and the discipleship process with an energy I had not seen before in them.
But my favorite part of the story is what happened next. Joy filled the room. Men began to cry, and suddenly we were all worshiping. There was no music or emotional cue, just a bunch of guys rejoicing over the weight of sin being lifted off their shoulders and the love of God filling their hearts because the fear of the Lord leads to intimacy with Him.
It should not be so surprising to us that God continues to do what He says He will do, but somehow we are still caught off guard by His abundant goodness. We continue to see these types of stories happen on a regular basis in formal and informal settings. Over the last month, another 15 people committed to following Jesus in the summer outreaches we’ve participated in with the youth group. Thank you for encouraging us to continue, helping us through the means to do so, and praying with us for God to do the miraculous.