Revelation Day 27 - Eat This Book

DAY 27
Eat This Book
Revelation 10:8-11

How do we talk about God?

I grew up in a church that told us how important it is to talk about God. We stressed evangelism, telling people the good news about Jesus Christ. “Take every opportunity! You never know if you’ll get another! What if they die tonight? What if YOU die tonight?”

But I was also afraid to talk about God. And a bit introverted. All that makes a nerve-wracking combo. Revelation 10-11 is more focused on the need to tell the truth about God than how we do it, but there’s some practical wisdom hiding here, too, to help us talk about God.

First, we've been saying throughout this series that people tend to either obsess over or ignore the book of Revelation. The same thing tends to be true in talking about God. Some people are eager to talk about God! In fact, some chatter on and on about it, sprinkling God into every sentence. Others are scared to talk about God. They worry they don't know enough, or they're going to offend somebody.

But Rev 10 reminds us there’s a time to talk - and a time to shut up. Literally, the angel tells John, “Shut up, don't talk about this right now. Now is not the time.” Why does he say this? Nobody knows, but there were also times in Jesus’s ministry when he said, “Don’t tell people about me - not yet.” As Ecclesiastes says, there's a time for everything. Pick the right time to tell the truth about God.

Second, Rev 10 tells us to first digest the truth about God for ourselves. The angel tells John to “eat this book.” "Eat this book" is God's way of saying, “Absorb this truth into yourself. Digest the gospel. Don't just spray it all over other people.” We all know people who talk about things like experts but really know little about the subject. Each of us needs to soak up the gospel into our hearts our minds and our bodies. Are you soaking up enough gospel to tell the truth about God well?

REFLECT
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = not at all, 5 = super excited), how eager are you to talk about God with others? Why?

PRAY
Lord, help me to digest the gospel. Make me soak up in my heart and my mind. Pour your truth into every nook and cranny of me. Let me be so full of gospel truth that it leaks out of me. Amen.