It's not often that I get behind a microphone these days. Funny since I used to spend my life behind the podium... public speaking contests, debate, speeches.  Speaking doesn't make me nervous; preaching does. Today I had the opportunity to preach for only the second time. The topic was james 4: framing your faith and life by submitting to God's will. The essence was that we need to trade our self-centered framing mechanism for humility- a God centered schema.

Truth be told. I'm not feeling particularly great about tonight's sermon. On one hand, I know that I brought across all the points that I believe that God wanted me to with this passage. I know that said what I needed to say, and I know that God will use that for His glory. On the other hand, analyzing from my public speaking experience,  I know my delivery was as good as it could have been. After adding an impromptu idea that wasn't in my outline, I really struggled to close the talk and call people to a response. Also, I felt like I could have made some of my points a little more relatable.  And, I went a few minutes long without being succinct. Overall, I thought it went okay, but was humbly reminded that there are always areas for improvement.

As I opened my message, I told my friends that I needed to relearn these truths as much as I believe they needed to hear them.  So true, and accurate. I preached  about humility tonight, and I learned humility tonight. My performance was mediocre, but since when is preaching about performance? I have a lot to learn, and am grateful for the reminder that I need to continually submit to God's will with a posture of learning.  My prayer is that God will increase in my own life, that I will be continually humbled, and that God would use me to bring others to Himself.

Also, as I'm writing this, I'm also prayerfully considering tonight. I felt compelled to pick up My Utmost for His Highest off my bookshelf... the passage for tonight:

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you —James 4:8 

It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing..."