Due to my work in the seminary, I get to meet a lot of preachers—those who want to become preachers and those who have become preachers.  As a result of knowing some of them on a personal level, I also become aware of the struggles that they go through.  One of them is that there are times when they know that their lives do not match up with their preaching.  Like anyone else, some decide to do nothing about it but to accept it and carry on with their lives.  Thank God, some decide to something about it.  They want to quit because they know they are not worthy to be servants of Jesus.  By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit stop them; after convicting them, He renews them and brings in fresh power to their lives and uses them.

In his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Pastor Jim Cymbala talks about preaching.  He says there are two kinds of preaching: fine and true preachings.  A fine preaching is a preaching in which the preacher’s skill of preparing it becomes the dominant feature of the preaching.  True preaching is one that flows out of the preacher’s life where, the preaching and the preacher are one.  There are many factors that can hinder spiritual growth, one of them is, according to Pastor Cymbala, fine preaching.  The preacher and those who hear his preaching end up not growing.  They might like to preach and be preached to, but neither grow.  They might know more about God, but they do not know God more—deeply and intimately. 

Like it or not, we are all preachers because we are all bearers of the Good News of Jesus.  We always tell people about Jesus, directly or indirectly. So, we, too, at times struggle when we know that our preaching does not match up with our lives.  Do not brush it away as if it is nothing by saying, “No body is perfect.”  Instead, do listen to what the Holy Spirit whispers to us and take a step back. Remember this: God never stops shaping us, especially those whom He uses.

Pastor Paul