“I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 NASB 1995

I listened to a podcast conversation the other day about how to communicate more effectively. The interviewee’s top suggestion was to narrow your talk, your writing, your class lesson to one main point.  This should be a pre-determined ‘takeaway’ you want your audience to retain. Of course, you would build up and out from there.  But knowing the compelling ‘what or action step’ should be your first step.

Too often, having listened to a speaker or read an essay or a book, I find I can’t adequately share its impact. I default to telling a friend, ‘I can’t really put it into words, but it was really good, what she said/wrote. And I think you’ll enjoy it.’

This public speaking coach gave an example of the point she wanted an audience to recall after a talk she delivered on managing one’s fears at a corporate emotional wellness conference.  Her takeaway was something like, ‘With fear, do it anyway.’

So, what was MY takeaway from listening to this podcast conversation on how to become a better communicator?  That I need to come up with a simple takeaway that I can use over and over each time I share the gospel.

As we encounter people in our day-to-day life, God gives us occasions to offer something good, true and life-giving about him. For example, when I volunteer at our city’s pregnancy resource center, my role as a counselor is both to share the gospel and help and support a woman or a couple with their decisions about the life of their baby.  I always pray beforehand, that the Lord would lead me to say, to communicate just what that woman or couple need to hear.  I don’t use a ‘canned’ gospel question or presentation.  I actually think they can be a turn off to people.

But reflecting on what is the one takeaway I want everyone I meet to know about God is this. That,

  • God knows you through and through (since he formed you) and that
  • (from the verse above) He has loved you with an everlasting love and is drawing you to himself with lovingkindness.

Don’t we all long to have someone in our life who knows all about us, the absolute worst? AND still loves us?  Is that not the desperate cry of the human heart?  If you doubt this, consider the Samaritan woman at the well. Read her engaging and bold message proclaimed enthusiastically to her entire village. Without shame:

“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” John 4:29 NASB

So, what is YOUR simple gospel message you can easily share.  It has to be something that YOU, yourself, won’t forget. 

Mine is: God knows you through and through and has loved you forever.