Obstacles to preaching the Good news of Jesus Christ – Part 3

1 Timothy 1:15 – This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Ignorance of the power of gospel

If you are not aware of the power and the possibilities that are available through the gospel you are likely to take it for granted. Until the gospel is preached, it is will never be effective. But you can’t preach what you don’t understand or believe. Another weapon of the devil against believers is ignorance. The cure to this is knowledge. We need to carry out a thorough research on the power that is available in the gospel first. We need to get hold of it first, and then we will be able to deliver it with confidence and conviction.

Lack of sense of responsibility

In 1 Corinthians 9:16, Paul said, for if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! God has given you the assignment to preach the gospel to your world. He has chosen us to tell our world that He is not mad at them. He wants us to tell them that He knows their strengths and weaknesses and that He is ready to help them with their problems. This means that if we don’t preach the gospel our world will not be aware of God’s love and saving power. The sense of responsibility, it is said, is the price of greatness. I have been taking an inventory of how many people I have brought to the Lord this year. From this exercise I concluded that I need to do more than I am currently doing. The more I do the more people come to know the Lord and the better my world becomes. Consequently I will speed up the coming of Jesus and our departure to heaven.

Lack of motivation

When I received Christ into my life, one of the things that we were encouraged to do is to tell our friends and family of our salvation and the joy and relief that we had received through it. I was fired up to tell everyone about the mercy that God has showing me and His love for me. But after a while, the motivation began to deplete and the people that ministered to us did not encourage us as before because we were now ‘old converts’. I found out that it is mainly the new converts that are encouraged and motivated to reach out and tell their friends about the love of God and salvation. The ‘old converts’ are not motivated to do so or encouraged as much. This is very sad and is an obstacle in the way of spreading the gospel. Friend, preaching the gospel is the responsibility of every one of us and everybody should be encouraged to do it at every available opportunity.

Further reading

John 1:12, 2Corinthians 5:20-21

Personal declaration for the day

I will take the good news that Jesus has given me and partake of it by applying it to my situation. I will receive my personal healing from the good news. I will receive favour from the good news. I will receive prosperity from the good news. I will receive hope and freedom from the good news and I will reach my world with the good news because I am a bearer of good news in Jesus’ name.

Questions for you to reflect on

How many people have you led to Christ this year?

What steps are you taking to reach out and spread the good news?