Thanks for Sharing

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church NWA Celebrate Recovery Women's Encourager coach 1/24/2018

"Thank you for sharing".  We hear it all the time in Open Share and Step Study, following someone having shared.  Sharing is vital to recovery because it gets us to speak about our feelings, thoughts, or emotions we're going through, and from that sharing, we begin to experience and share hope, healing, and restoration.  

What happens when God is calling you to share in another way?  What if God is calling you to do something that you fear, or to a place you never thought you'd go?  When called to do something that causes our anxieties to rare up, some of us tend to run from it. Things like sharing your testimony, getting involved in jail ministry, helping feed the poor..for some, these things are downright scary to even think about! I want to encourage you to really pray about that. Consider if it is something God is calling YOU to that will bring Him glory, bring you growth, and help others to know that there truly IS hope.

I can't help but think of that children's movie from VeggieTales “Jonah”, where Jonah receives a message to go to Nineveh. Was he excited and thrilled to go? No! He doubted, and he hid! He really wanted it to be a mistake that God would want him to go there to talk to the people of Nineveh! He would have rather done anything else or gone anywhere else! In Jonah's mind, the people of Nineveh were likely not to be accepting of the message God was sending Jonah to tell them! Afterall, they weren't even nice to one another!! Jonah tried everything to avoid going there, but God will not accept any excuses! Finally, Jonah was obedient (Although he had some H.E.A.R.T issues of his own). He went and he told the Ninevites God's message of change. God is a God of mercy, grace, and second chances!

All that time ago, God called Jonah to deliver a message of mercy, grace, and second chances. Why, then, would he not want you to deliver this message to people today? Every ear deserves to hear it. Every tongue that is able to speak it is blessed, already, beyond measure! He is calling us to share our gifts and share what God has done. So, when an opportunity to serve others comes around to you, please don't run away out of anxiety and fear. Sharing God is the greatest gift you could ever give to someone, and sometimes that comes in the form of sharing your testimony, jail ministry, feeding the homeless, etc. 
What do you feel God is calling you to today?

“Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy,
to offer yourselves as living sacrifices,
Holy and Pleasing to God.
This is your spiritual act of worship.” Rom.12:1


Click HERE to listen to So Will I by Amanda Cook

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