Have you felt your confidence in the gospel shaken as you tell it?
As you speak about Christ to strangers on the street, you see the confusion or disdain in their eyes. Chatting over a coffee with an old friend, you can tell nothing is hitting home. From the pulpit, you see people dozing off.
You hear the words coming out of your mouth—speaking of a crucified Christ, calling unbelievers to penitent faith in all he is and all he does, warning people that this is the only way to save their soul from the power of sin and the horrors of hell. You hear the familiar words, and yet you sometimes wonder: “What’s the point? They must think this is the weirdest thing they’ve ever heard!”
We know that this good news, this message of the cross, is foolishness to those who are perishing. To us who are being saved it should be the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). But sometimes our own confidence in the gospel is shaken. We believe it for ourselves (or hope we hope we do!), but we barely dare to believe it for anyone else.
Sometimes our own confidence in the gospel is shaken. We believe it for ourselves, but we barely dare to believe it for anyone else.
A long season of ministry without much apparent fruit provokes doubts. A concerted evangelistic effort without any visible effects distresses our hearts. One more conversation in which someone sneers or even simply shrugs makes us wonder whether there’s anything in this gospel we proclaim. For people engaged in evangelism, doubt, despondency, and even despair may be more common than we imagine.
Have you felt something of this? How can you fortify your heart against such discouragements? How can you keep proclaiming the gospel when evangelism feels like foolishness?
Repent
First, we should repent of our unbelief regarding the power of God’s gospel simply proclaimed. We must see it for what it is and deal with it accordingly. Unbelief is the voice of the serpent whispering his old question in your ear, “Has God really said . . . ?”
We should go to the God who has spoken, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) and ask him to forgive us for doubting his mercy and his might.
Seek Grace
Second, we should cry for grace, saying, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Many preachers, even in the very act of preaching, have been accosted with the thought that these truths are not true. It can cause an unspeakable agony of soul to fight such a battle internally when you’re trying, outwardly, to make Christ known.
And so we come back to him, and cast these cares upon him, and ask for his grace and strength to be made perfect in our weakness.
Stir Up Faith
Third, we should stir up and strengthen our faith. There are several things we can ponder to help us do this.
1. God’s Promises
Consider God’s promises. Dwell prayerfully on the assurances of the Scriptures. God says that his Word shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish what he pleases, and shall prosper in the purpose for which he sent it (Isa. 55:11).
He tells us that the gospel of Christ is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (Rom. 1:16–17). We know that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). With the help of his Spirit, we must believe what God says about the gospel.
2. Church History
Consider church history. Consider how Paul and his fellow laborers preached throughout the ancient world. As they did, as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed (Acts 13:48).
God has always chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Cor. 1:27–29). Paul is talking about Christians past and present whom God uses to bring in God’s people. God hasn’t changed. If this has always been his gracious way of working, should we not trust him to do so with us also?
3. Personal Experience
Consider personal experience. To us who are being saved, this gospel is the power of God.
Have you not been saved through trusting in Jesus Christ? Have you heard and believed and been delivered? What about your fellow church members? Are they not trophies of divine grace? Then why not others?
Perhaps you have vivid memories of your own early encounters with the good news of Jesus before the Lord opened your eyes to behold the glory of Christ. Perhaps you remember being brought up under the sound of the gospel, but it bounced off your deaf ears and your dead heart until you were made alive by the power of the Spirit.
If God could save you, wretched sinner, why can he not save others, opening their blind eyes and enlivening their souls? Then, having saved you, has he used you before to glorify his name? Can he not use you again to call others to himself?
4. Broader Perspectives
Consider other places—those places in this world where the Lord is at work in ways that might stir us to a holy envy. Perhaps you know them personally, or by distant report. But you do know them!
If God could save you, why can he not save others?
Beware resentment—do not complain that the Lord has seen fit to bless them there in a way he has not blessed you here. Take courage—is the Lord’s hand shortened, that it cannot save? Is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear (Isa. 59:1)? When we hear of God’s mighty acts elsewhere, it should encourage us to serve him where he has put us.
5. God-Given Duty
Finally, consider your duty. Yours is the privilege of making known Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who laid down his life in the place of sinners, assuring all that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13).
You don’t need to know when or where or to what degree the saving God might be pleased to use you. You’re called to go into all the world, to preach the gospel to every creature, to leave the outcome with God, and to ascribe all the glory to him alone.
The Gospel Coalition