Ignite with Barry Meguiar Podcast

Barry Meguiar 00:00
I, you know, I first started sharing my faith. I mean, I was terrible. I mean, it was sweaty palms. I mean, because I was doing it for all the wrong reasons. I was doing it because I was told I had to do it. And that’s wrong, and we’re not here to tell you you have to share your faith. The difference is, for me now is that I do it because I love to do it. In fact, it’s beyond that. I can’t even help myself. I just do it. And I want to give you a right quick the formula that has transformed my life for sharing my faith and everybody else I’ve told the formula too. It’s kind of unique to me, but it’s my own personal experience, and it is scriptural. Our relationship with God starts with not loving God. Okay? I convinced I will shock it out. But loving God is not the first step. The first step is fear. Okay, you might have fear. What is that all about? But the Scriptures tell us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it’s not that God, I’m afraid of you. It’s just that we need to understand the awesomeness of God. I mean, he created the universe. Go outside at that look at all those stars. He created all that. In fact, he not only created but he says, he holds it in his hand. I mean, the message the awesomeness of God. And yet He knows our every thought. He knows the number of hairs on our head. We need to understand that he is an awesome God. When we go to worship him in the house of God, it’s holy ground. When we walk into that church, it’s holy ground. It’s not just another occasion. And one of the things we do on the weekends, we need to walk in and recognize He’s holy, and he’s given us the privilege of knowing him personally, you know. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Next step is trust. You know, you can’t love God if you don’t trust God. Trust actually comes before. And how do you learn how to trust God? You put him to the test. So to speak, I love this scripture. It’s been my lifetime scripture in Proverbs 35 Trust the Lord with your whole heart and don’t depend on your own thought process in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he’ll direct your path. That’s his promise. So you put him to the test, and when you come to that fork in the road, you have some sort of challenge in your life. If you stop worrying, if you’re worrying, you’re not trusting. Okay, if you’re laying awake at night fretting, you’re not trusting, that’s not trust. Trust is wholehearted trust. Proverbs 35 Trust the Lord with your whole heart. When you trust it with your whole heart, then it just, it just changes everything. And then he comes in and he directs your steps, he makes the path straight, and he makes things come together. He gives you good decisions. At that point, that’s when you begin to just love God. For so many years, I love God just by saying, I love you God. I love you God. But it was really an empty love. I said it because I had to. Okay, this is not about a have to thing because I want to. And loving God is I love you. God, you’ve been so faithful. I can’t believe I’m a guy who pedals car wax. How do I deserve your attention and your ability, your wanting to sit there and direct my steps in the things that I do? It’s just amazing. I can’t help myself, but love God. That’s a whole different world. Then we end up with the next step, which is intimacy, and that’s as we do it more and more, then it’s just a daily walk. It’s a relationship. It’s walk as I walk through life, as I walk into the field of a car show or anywhere else down the street into a market. God, this is my mission field. Who do you have you’re going to bring into my life next that I can share your love with? I can just love, let your love flow through me. That’s intimacy. That’s the fourth step, the last step. Last step is celebration, and that’s when you can’t contain your love. You can’t contain your witness, you can’t contain all that’s in when you you have to share it with somebody, and you’re doing it not because you have to, but because you want to, in fact, because you can’t help yourself. And that makes all the difference. When you’re sharing your faith.