What Happened to Sid?

Janet and Sid were our next door neighbors who came to our neighborhood Bible study. I noticed that gradually Sid had begun making great spiritual progress. They were co-teaching a Sunday School class, and he would now lead in prayer during our study.

One day I said to Janet, "What happened to Sid?"

"Oh," she said, "I had been nagging him about his relationship with the Lord, telling him he should lead family devotions and that he should pray more. He didn't need that. I stopped nagging him and began to pray for him." God had done the rest in response to faith.

It's not that God never uses our words. He often does. But first we must trust Him and then say only what He gives us to say.

When we don't, our words are like the sticks of John 15:6:  "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." They accomplish absolutely nothing of eternal value. 

Dear Jesus, please help me to remember that if I want to change someone, I must go through You.

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me" (John 15:4).