How do we keep our relationship with God fresh, alive and pounding with expectation? It’s a tough job, living on a planet that seeks to deplete your vibrancy, joy and hope with each breath. As you know, we all have caught this highly fatal disease, and none of us are expected to make it out of here alive. So what is one to do when life is surrounded by so many complexities, seducing us to imagine that, “Frankly Scarlet, God just doesn’t give a darn”?

My observation and experience has taught me that two exercises are necessary for us to keep our passion high for God; one of them I want to elaborate on.  Learn to tell stories. I mean, really get good at it. Make it a high priority in your life to tell a story and tell it well. There are five parts of a story, and if you nail each one, your stories will revitalize a soul.

SETTING – First, get really good at explaining where the story happened. Don’t just say it happened in the Middle East somewhere. Tell them it happened out in the wilderness with high mountains on one side, a camp of soldiers on another and a sea in front of them. The only way out was the way they came, but then again there were soldiers chasing them from that direction. There was no way out.

CHARACTERS – Second, who is the story about? Not just some people in the middle of the desert, but people who God had made some bold promises to.  People who were told to leave what they knew, for what they had never experienced and God would protect them. Further, He would give them new homes, and they would live liberated not as they had lived—oppressed by slavery. Whoever you are telling a story about, explain their weaknesses, their strengths, their potential; sketch in their lives, and bring them to the big screen in people’s imagination.  

PLOT – Third, you need to tell what happened. The plot always has three parts. First, the “Set-Up.” That is your introduction of the setting and the character.  Next is the “Build-Up.” This is when you introduce the tension and problems that exist within the story. Finally, the “Pay-Off” where you explain how the tension is resolved—i.e. Moses prayed, God answered and told him to lift his staff and the Red Sea opened. The people walked across on dry ground; once on the other side, the water works and wave pool really started—an entire army washed up in the backspin.

BACK-STORY – Fourth, every good story has a back-story. In the one I am using as an illustration, the back-story could be how God made a promise to Abraham some 500 years before He fulfilled it. God remembers His promises.

DETAILS – Finally, you need to give enough details to provide coherence within the story and to build an emotional picture on the big screen that exists in everyone’s mind.

By now I am sure you assume that I have forgotten where I started. Not at all. If you want to live a life that is full, joyous and fresh with hope, you must learn to tell stories. You see, we are told in Psalms 78 that it was through story telling, that the generation behind us hears the stories of God’s past miracles, and in the telling they are stirred, “to set their hope anew on God.” (78:1-7) Telling the stories of Scripture, history and personal experience about God’s miraculous care, keeps trust burning bright and the heart on fire with faith. Not only the hearts of those who hear us, but our very own heart as well. It doesn’t matter if we are parents or not; we are all called upon to hand to the next generation the stories and the instructions of God. Whether you’re a parent or you’re single, keep your spiritual fires alive and hot—tell God stories—and set the hope of tomorrow’s generation on fire.  

© livinghope