first Experience then understand

Reference: John 1:45-46 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, "We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46 "Nazareth!" exclaimed Nathanael. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" "Come and see for yourself," Philip replied.

Observation: When we are trying to bring someone to Jesus, our approach, many times, is to try to convince them of who He is. Philip had a different and, perhaps, more effective approach. He encouraged his brother to come and discover the truth for himself through experience.

It seems that this is the way knowing God is supposed to work. In most of life we learn to know and then to experience (for example, driving a car, we learn how before we do it) but with God it is when we are willing to experience that we start to understand.

This is also true for those who don't yet know God. Explaining Him is hard to do and rarely effective. What people need is an experience with Him. We need to trust that God is big enough that if someone is truly seeking Him, He will make Himself known to them.

Our part is to pray, to ask God to reveal Himself and enable our friends to be able to see the truth as it is revealed. The Bible tells us that those who don't know God have blinders on but we can believe that God, by His grace, will ease those blinders aside so that they can get a glimpse of who He is--maybe in us.

Application/Confession: I am built to try to convince people of things. I need to have more trust in God that when it comes to His truth, He will reveal it to honest seekers. I guess I need to admit my own limitations and instead of trying to seal the deal, convince others of every piece of truth, I need to steer them always to Jesus. In Him they will find the truth.

PRAYER: May others see You in my life. Teach me how to lead people to You. Increase my faith in You so that I fully believe that if a honest seeker looks for You they will find the Truth--without my arguments and persuation.