Hey guys!
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1
Experience
I went on a mission trip a few years ago to the Dominican Republic. It was overall an amazing experience that helped me grow and learn how to share the gospel. I want to put emphasize that I was not trained when I began sharing. I was speaking purely from hearing others share and then replicating what they did.
One thing that I was unprepared for was facing rejection. I didn't exactly know how to respond when someone told me they didn't believe in what I was talking about. I didn't understand why someone would not believe, why someone would pass up such perfect love. This led me to be angry with the person but also myself.
Thoughts on the Verse
If you think about this verse, it just makes logical sense. If you speak gently with kind words to someone, you won't cause any anger. When you're in a situation that involves someone being angry with you, it's hard not to get defensive. Our natural reaction to anger is to defend ourselves, and for most people, this involves harsh words or thoughts. This never solves anything.
Connection
When I am rejected I get angry. I want to tell the person more about how their sin will bring nothing good to them and tell them about how their lives are saved and their sin is forgotten because of Jesus. I want to yell at them that their life will have so much more meaning and purpose if they just believed in God. But this isn't the proper response.
We are called to be kind and gentle, but this does not mean we are called to be silent. We are called to pray for others, and to actively invite our peers to church. God's pursuit of us is not gentle. Our pursuit of our brothers and sisters does not have to be gentle. You will offend people when sharing the gospel. God will change lives, but you have to know your boundaries. I pray that you are intentionally treating others kindly so that you may be a reflection of God. I pray that you are gentle in your approach, but persistent and wise as well.
Praying,
Addison Wimbish
An enormous amount of atheists and agnostics across the Earth utterly reject the notion of the christian god, perhaps even in an offensive way. I'm mostly an atheist myself, and there are several reasons why so many of us refuse to believe in god, or even god's messages to humanity. For scientific atheists, our focus is mainly and sometimes only on the existence of god. People can argue that since the start of humanity, there has never been enough proof to show us that god exists as a being, while many discoveries have been made contradicting the creation stories in the bible.
When I was much younger, I always went "God and heaven? What nonsense!", and found myself rejecting the…