Are You a Prophet of God?

Sleep eluded me one early morning before the sun rose, and instead of tossing in bed for another five hours, I decided to get up and do some work. After answering a few emails, I grabbed the Bible, opened to it and uttered a simple prayer. “Speak to me.” I really wasn’t expecting much, wasn’t really needing a heavy or life changing word, but my eyes fell on Luke 2:2, Zechariah’s Song.

“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare a way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising of the sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the path of peace.”

In my half awakened state, without any touchy, feely divine revelation, the words spoke to me. For a while I’ve been thinking about my motives for writing and wanting to be published. Years ago they were clear. To reach people with the love of Christ. I came across a goal list of mine I made twenty years ago. And my motivation for publication was clear. I wrote, “even if only one person reads my words about YOU and is changed, it would be worth it.”

Where did that passionate, unassuming girl go? Guess she got lost somewhere in the middle of life because along the way that motivation got lost. I’m not saying that I didn’t want my writing to glorify God and point the way to his son, but along the journey, publication became more important than simply writing for him. Then God gave me a wakeup call and set me back on the straight and narrow path. I can’t say that my motivation is totally pure yet, and I don’t know if it will ever be, but Luke 2:2 has given me a new direction for my old motivation.

I “will go on before the Lord to prepare a way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the tender mercy of our God.”

What a beautiful description of why I write! But it can also be applied to parenting and every facet of life. As parents, our job is to go before the Lord to prepare our children’s hearts and give them the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins and teach of God’s tender mercy. What a wonderful life goal! In a sense, we’re all prophets of God, though I would never compare myself to John the Baptist, aren’t we preparing the way of the Lord whether at home or at work? In the very least, we share the same job description! Just something to think about along the way…