Intended Words

Does it matter if a pastor preaches a message that does more harm than good? Does it matter to know whether I’m the only one who felt that way about a particular sermon?

The difficult part is knowing that it could have been a good message, especially after the powerful testimonies and wonderful time of worship and prayer beforehand. Passages were read from the Bible, but the pastor’s usage of them in today’s world, along with the analogies meant to stress the passages, missed the mark. It seemed to me that the pastor did not say what he meant to say, and the lingering feeling within me wasn’t that I was convicted to change my life. I am changing my life everyday with and in God. It’s more that it seems the devil wants to use his misguided analogies to try and diminish the growth I am making with my Lord.

God speaks with and guides me. And when I make an error, such as when I close out God’s voice because I think I’m doing well on my own, he points that out to me and then uses my errors for good, because that’s who my God is. – I thank you God for that. –

I guess what I wish is that pastors pay attention to make sure what they are saying is what they mean to say, and to not take short cuts in their analogies thinking people will get what they mean. People are a lot more complex than some pastors give them credit for. Words are powerful, and when giving a message to a congregation in God’s name, it seems they should put more work into making sure their words line up with God’s intended message. Otherwise, like I did, some may leave feeling confused, not convicted, wary that the devil is steering them away from their connection with God, and otherwise dissatisfied with the word for that day.

I have to say, this helped! I thank God also for this blog. Sometimes I may vent what’s on my mind that day, which may not be exactly what I feel the next day, week or month (because I am still growing and this is a blog). Nonetheless, it helps me to write out these feelings. Like now, I no longer feel so disconnected by the message as I did before I began writing.

I hope that if anyone misunderstands what I say in this blog or thinks I’m misguided or misstated something, that you’d make a comment. I will respond, and maybe, if I did misstate something, then I can correct it. The sharing of ideas is a blessing, and I hope others will be moved as well.