Genuine Sharing

“Genuine Sharing”

By Zach Wood

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (NIV)

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

We try to hard these days to persuade people to buy into things.  Maybe some of us are in sales positions.  Perhaps some of us are in other positions that require being persuasive.  Now, there’s nothing at all wrong with doing these types of jobs as long as we’re not trying to persuade others for selfish gain.  That’s the key point.  If we are in a position where we try to persuade, then why are we doing it?

This is a good question we also must ask ourselves when we are trying to persuade others to follow God.  How do we share with others?  What is our plan of reaching out?  How do we mingle with people and find opportunities to share God’s Word with them? 

The Apostle Paul made it very clear that he was not interested in trying to persuade people to just “buy into” something.  He was not trying to preach and teach a message with fancy and eloquent words so that others would be impressed and follow God.  Paul had a sincere desire to see others impacted by God’s Word.  He was not trying to rely on his own abilities or his own wisdom, but only by what God empowered him to do. 

Why do we try so hard sometimes when what we really need to do is just let God use us?  Often times we try to reach others and use different tactics to get people to follow Christ.  What we need is sincerity and a genuine love that will far outweigh any effort we try to make on our own.  What people want these days is to see genuine people loving and caring for them, not people who are just trying to get them to “buy into” something.

When we share with others, we need to allow God to use us however He wants to.  We shouldn’t try to impress other people or try to persuade them by showing how much we know.  We simply need to be genuine, loving and caring, relying on God’s Spirit to direct us and lead.  We try so hard so often and what we really need is to let God lead completely, in His wisdom.