What's stopping you?
What prevents me from being baptized?”~Eunuch to Phillip (Acts 8:36)
In Acts 8:26-40, God uses Phillip to explain to the Eunuch about Jesus. The Eunuch was quite confused after reading Isaiah. He didn’t know who Isaiah was talking about. After Phillip explained, the eunuch asks this wonderful question, “What prevents me from being baptized?” They both went down to the water and he was baptized immediately.
Pastor Dave used this scripture today in his sermon today. But the part of the scripture that stuck out to me was this question. I kept focusing on it even though the sermon was more about the evangelism of Phillip.
And then it struck me.
This question can be used in multiple ways. Just change out the word baptized for another.
“What prevents me from reading my Bible?
“What prevents me from memorizing scripture?
“What prevents me from joining a Bible Study?”
What great questions. And ones that we probably should all ask ourselves from time to time. We can all make excuses, but in the end, it is ourselves that can be the obstacle.
And we all do this. I’m in a season in my life were I don’t feel guilty saying no to things. I feel my calling is being a wife first and mother second. Anything that stands in the way is going to get a no answer.
Except….(oh, I knew this was coming) God comes first and is foremost in my life. Therefore, I must make time and effort to be close to Him. If I don’t, He will feel far away and I’ll become discouraged.
I love the enthusiam of this eunuch. He didn’t say, “Ah, I’ll just get baptized later.” No, he had to do it immediately. His excitement is contagious.
“So, what’s preventing you from _________?”
Just some fun things to think about:
I did this last year. What an amazing experience. And I would totally do it again. Just not right now. So yes, I may be “preventing” myself but realistically having a newborn (and Jax!) and trying to read up to 13 chapters a day isn’t realistic at this point. But it sure doesn’t stop me from using another plan. (in other words, a more slow paced reading schedule) I just recently found this Bible plan that keeps you in the Word each day of the week! (I’m trying not to take the slacker part of personally. Ha!)
Memorizing the entire book of Colossians
Oh. My. Goodness. Memorizing this book in an entire year made me laugh. (Maybe I was acting a bit like Sarah when God said she would have a son. At age 90.) Anyways, I never attempted to memorize scripture too much. But I sure see the importance in it. So while I was trying to find ways to do this, I kept coming back to Colossians. And finally, I said I would do it. Memorizing two verses a week isn’t hard. I can still do it sleep-deprived in March. And if I fall a little behind, I’ll catch up. So far, I’ve got six verses up in this ol’ noggin. I just hope I don’t have a brain overload!
