On Students and No Faith (Vol. 2 of me having no faith)

First of all, thank you all for the encouragement with the BBQ. I am trusting that the Lord will provide all that we need tomorrow. He is the Lord, and he is sovereign (even if we don't sell all of our tickets). With that being said, please stop by East Vernon and get a BBQ plate if you're in town!

But of enough of that.

Wednesday night at church was phenomenal. Absolutely wonderful. One of my youth accepted Christ as Lord and Savior during our youth discipleship time! I'm so excited for her. Let's just say that she was not very receptive to things when she first starting coming to church a few weeks ago. She could care less about worship, Bible study, or anything else. The only reason she came was because some of my students kept inviting her. But the Holy Spirit has truly been working in her heart lately, and she surrendered to Christ Wednesday night. Praise the Lord for his unfailing love!

On top of that, we had several breakthrough conversations with some of our students. Some guys that haven't really talked much have started talking. Our small groups are really clicking and getting along well. Relationships are being formed between students and leaders alike. It's truly been awesome. There is no other explanation than the work of the Holy Spirit.

As we celebrated the moving of the Lord Wednesday night after church, the Lord really floored me, a couple of my students, and my leaders with this thought: why don't we expect the same results every week?

I am ashamed to tell you that there are many weeks when I don't expect the Spirit to move in the hearts of my students like it did Wednesday night. Although I would tell you that I wanted God to move and would pray those exact words, I had no faith. There were many students who would walk in the door to youth that night, and I lacked the faith to believe that God could break through their hardened hearts. And now that that has happened, I act surprised that God actually did what we wanted him to do all along.

I was once just like the worst of my kids--lost, hopeless, careless about what the Lord wanted for me, disobedient, wicked in my ways, arrogant, selfish, full of lust, and full of malice. But when the kindness of my Lord and Savior appeared to me, he broke my heart and gave me a new one and gave me an inheritance as his son through Jesus Christ.

Woe be me if I ever deny that same grace to anyone else. Woe be me if I ever fail to believe that the Holy Spirit is not capable of working in the hardest of hearts. Woe be me if I ever cease to preach the Gospel of Jesus faithfully and effectively to the people under my charge. Woe be me if I do not lift up my students in prayer, asking that the Spirit break their hearts. Woe be me if I consider any student a lost cause, a person beyond redemption, because I was once that person too.

Thank you, Lord, for what you do. Thank you for being much bigger than my puny faith. Help me to continue to trust in you. May you alone be glorified for what is done in the hearts of my students.