The Heart of the Godly Balance

Foreword by Shonté Bell

Recently I heard a minister say that when God creates a new ministry, the purpose of the ministry will be to reach a particular group of people in such a way that the population has never been reached or served before.

I believe this to be largely true. So, I'm sharing this with you now to give you clarity as to why we have taken steps to birth The Godly balance,--or rather to explain why the Lord has birthed The Godly balance through us.

In my spirit, I feel that most of my messages will be aimed towards people who are lonely, discouraged, disenfranchised, and angry. The outsiders and “loners” in Christ. To be real, that is the place where I feel I have existed my whole life. On the “outside.” Alone in my spirit with God. Physically present, but emotionally removed from other people.

Feeling or being removed from other human beings is not the same as failing to be pursuant of the Lord. As a matter of fact, it was often my pursuit of the Lord and the application of his Godly principles in my life that alienated me from other human beings who were not as dedicated to Him. I have gone years without feeling any true fraternity with other people,-- sometimes even with other believers. At times, I greatly craved friendship and fellowship with other saints, (or with anybody for that matter). But I couldn't find it.

On the rare occasions when I would visit a local church, I often felt like the only “real” human in the building. So many people walked around with plastered on smiles, deathly afraid of giving the slightest inclination that something may not be absolutely perfect in their lives. Or with their kids lives. Or,--God forbid,--in their marriage. No one seemed willing to have a real conversation, talk about the genuine Troubles of life. In the middle of attempting to make a genuine connection with other Christians, people would just cut me off. Or begin to preach at me. There was often no listening or rewarding exchange of ideas.

That would often leave me feeling discouraged, angry, disenfranchised. And very very lonely.

So it's my commitment to you to speak to you honestly, and hopefully as encouragingly as possible. I want you to feel like you have a fellow Christian friend who's reaching out to you, trying to understand you. A fellow Christian friend who's willing to listen to you. Who wants to try to understand where you are right now. This is a real Ministry with real leaders and we are available if you need us. Secondarily I have a certain anointing of wisdom from the Lord. This anointing gives me insight and discernment. It helps me to live in a righteous way. A lot of the missteps and errors that people make in their life can be avoided. How? By putting God's wisdom and word into actual practice. We're going to explore this topic in much greater detail in the weeks to come.

But for now I just want to leave you with this second assurance:

Years ago I ran into a friend of mine in a church parking lot. She is a very intelligent woman for whom I have great respect. She and I have never connected as much as I wanted to, even though I've always thought she was funny and likable.  I would often reach out to her, but she wouldn't reach back. Remember what I said about loneliness?

In any case we stopped and had a brief chat. She shared with me a couple of things that she was going through. I mostly listened. But after a while my heart started burning inside of me I decided I had to speak. I gave her the words of wisdom that were in my spirit for her particular situation.She listened to what I had to say and then she closed her eyes for a moment.

When she opened her eyes she looked in me and said, ”Shonté,you always have a hard word for me.”

I felt immediately apologetic, not because I felt as if I had given her an ungodly word, that would be the worst offense of all. But I felt like I must have told her the truth un-lovingly. When I apologize she stopped me immediately and said, “No no. I didn't say that you spoke harshly. I said you gave me a hard word. And there's a difference.”

As she explained it, a hard word is godly truth expressed without compromise. A “hard word” is a Biblical principle that challenges us to  be maximally mature and Christ-like. That's different from speaking harshly. Speaking harshly is saying things in an irresponsible, overly judgmental, destructive way. A hard truth builds others up. Speaking harshly tears others down.

And so, in no short amount of words, I've shared two of the most critical reasons I believe the Lord wants this ministry to exist. One, to speak truth into your life, genuine uncompromising truth. And secondly, to encourage you, especially if you often feel lonely and rejected by others in the faith.

Family, I hope to build you up with Godly principles and wisdom. I know God desires for each of us to have a meaningful, fruitful time on Earth.

So, I'm Shonté Patterson-Bell, your sister and friend in the faith. And I'm here to help you take hold of The Godly Balance for your life.

In our next article I explore how Twenty Five Cents of Faith can be quite a lot.

Author: Sis. Shonté Bell

Date: 01/06/2019
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