1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

Back in the days when I spent mostly all of my free time on the basketball courts in Brooklyn New York, guys liked to talk a lot. Young men enjoyed intimidating one another about how good they were on the court and how badly they were going to beat someone in a basketball game. Of course, it was just talk. I used to let everyone talk instead of engaging them. I felt that if I was going to talk, it was best to do it by how well I played. Some of the guys that talked the most had the least amount of talent.

If there is one thing that we as human beings are very good at, it's talking. We talk about things that we don't know much about as if we did, and we talk about what should be done in certain circumstances that we don't do ourselves. We, as followers of Christ, can't escape the truth either. Many people are quick to boast about what God can do and about who we are in Christ and about the authority that we wield as children of God. While it's good and right to boast about what God can do and about who we are in Christ, we can't just talk about it and then run for the hills at the first sign of trouble. Let me explain what I mean by telling you a true story.

Years ago, I was just learning how to handle a large boat and I wanted to take my father out on it so that we could experience that together. What I didn't know was that a friend of a relative of mine would invite himself to go with us. While I was making our way out into the ocean, he was telling my father and I about his incredible swimming skills. He wouldn't stop talking about it. All of a sudden, the boat's engine stopped and smoke started coming out from where the engine was. My father and I sprung into action, looking for a fire extinguisher and trying to figure out what to do to remedy the situation. We forgot about our unexpected guest that was with us but when we finally figured out what was going on, there he was wearing the only life jacket that there was on the boat! Mr. Olympic swimmer was scared out of his mind at the thought of having to swim to safety.

That's how ridiculous we sound as followers of Christ when we make big boasts about our God but then act as scared and confused as people who don't have a relationship with Jesus when bad news is reported via the media or when the threat of a disease outbreak is being forecast. What happened to our big talk about the God that we were so seemingly confident about before the trouble arose? The fact of the matter is that we have every right to be confident about God and it is very appropriate to boast about the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:17), but only when we believe and live it ourselves. The time to show the world how great our God is, is when things go wrong. We can make big boasts because we serve a big God. Let's not just talk big, let's believe big and lead the way in believing and trusting God through the troubles and the dangers that we all face in this world. Let's do a lot more than just talk. Let's live it!

Pastor Joey Vazquez