Effective Unpopular Opinions
http://www.reactlove.com/2010/11/effective-unpopular-opinions/
The negative opinion of ten men caused a great rebellion among hundreds of thousands of people. Because it is human nature to accept opinion as fact, we must be especially careful when voicing our negative opinions. What we say may heavily influence the actions of those who trust us to give sound advice.
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored...
-Numbers 13:31-32
Imagine standing before a crowd and loudly voicing an unpopular opinion! Caleb was willing to take the unpopular stand to do as God had commanded. To be effective when you go against the crowd, you must:
Have the facts. Caleb had seen the land himself.
Have the right attitude. Caleb trusted God's promise to give Israel the land.
State clearly what you believe. Caleb said, “We can certainly do it".
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
-Numbers 13:30
We are more like the people of Israel, getting our cowardice secondhand. Our search for right and wrong usually starts with questions such as "What do the experts say?" or "What do my friends say?" The question we most often avoid is "What does God say?"
The principles we learn as we study the Bible provide a dependable road map for life. They draw us into a personal relationship with the God whose Word is the Bible. The God who gave Caleb his boldness is the same God who offers us the gift of eternal life through his Son, Jesus. That’s truth worth believing!
What effective unpopular opinions do you have?
Created over 1 year ago
