“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for my soul.” Psalm 66:16

Every so often, I venture out to grab a cup of coffee and read God’s word in a different setting.  The past few times I’ve gone, though I have chosen a different location each time, I have sat across from fellow believers who likewise are studying the word!  This morning, I heard a young man, assumedly in high school or college, discipling a younger boy (about junior high aged), and was filled with joy!

Over the last few weeks, I have seen young people seeking out and studying who God is all over!  This generation is eager to know Him and He is moving everywhere.  This might be a dark time in our nation and in this world, but He is still working all around us.  I’ve seen so many people of my generation professing the gospel and teaching it to those around them!  Like the verse in this Psalm, we should be telling those around us what the Lord has done!  Believing, showing, proclaiming that Christ is enough.

We may feel far from persecution, but our brothers and sisters—our church—is strongly being persecuted.  Some of my favorite verses are found in John 16; in this chapter, Jesus explains the Holy Spirit to His disciples and tells them that He will soon leave them.  Knowing their hearts, He said “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20).  Later, verse 22, He mentions that they will see Him again and they will have joy that “no one will take.”  Jesus affirms that He will return to the Father soon and the disciples react saying “Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe You came from God” (John 16:30).  Jesus informs the disciples that they will be scattered and assures them that the Father is with Him (John 16:32).  The chapter concludes with Jesus saying “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world, you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Time has passed on, and not all suffer as the disciples did, but persecution still exists and new persecutors, namely ISIS, have come to invoke fear from believers as they terrorize our body of Christ.  But they cannot stop our God.  Job declared “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

In Acts 4, Peter and John defend that they “cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).  After that, they prayed for boldness to speak of the Lord (Acts 4:29), and so they did.  Their faith, and others of the time, gave us the 27 books of the New Testament, and now faith has spread around the globe!  Today and these past few weeks I have been able to watch Christians fall in love with God in coffee shops across America!  As I learn more about Him I continue to grow in my love for Him, as do those studying with me!

Our generation is eager and searching for God, and our lips utter His glory, we should exclaim “Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man,” (Psalm 66:5) as the generations before us did.

I am encouraged by this revival awakening in my generation.  No matter what, “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat” (I Corinthians 4:12-13).  God is moving, and we can choose to follow and serve Him, or we can choose to “shrink back” out of fear.  Either way, God’s will shall endure, and Christ will be victorious.

For Further Reading:

II Corinthians 4:8-12

Hebrews 10:39

Romans 8:19-27

Isaiah 48:10-11

I Thessalonians 5:18

Micah 6:8