Episode 427: I’m Talkin…Earnest

I’m Talkin’, episode 427 for June 21st, 2026.

This is Joel from the I’m Talkin’ microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking earnest.

I’m not sure if earnest is an old-fashioned word.

I’m not sure that I hear it all that much, but because of that, I thought I’d start with a definition, and the one that really jumped out at me said, sincere and intense conviction, and I like that.

That kind of speaks to the character of a person, and you wonder if people are earnest these days.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they are just trying to make you believe them, or if they are earnest and actually sincere in their conviction, if their conviction is intense.

And so I think it’s a character trait that we actually look for in people, and we can say that earnest character, it makes us feel like they can be trusted, maybe, or something like that.

Oftentimes we would think of earnest as it comes to morals, and therein lies the question.

Nope, therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Today’s word comes from 1 Peter 4, verse 7, that says, the end of the world is coming soon, therefore be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.

I believe as I mature as a Christian, the Bible becomes more real and more desperate, is a weird word to use, but I love the Bible, and the words in the Bible mean something.

And I think as I age and as I mature in my Christian walk, it’s kind of always been that way, but I think there’s a surface from God loves us, and God sent his son to these verses that I’ve been memorizing this year and last year, and it’s a time of continued conviction.

And I think that’s what I like about the Bible and what I love about the Bible is it doesn’t leave me alone.

It says things that I need to know, things that I need to hear, and the timing of it and the reality of it and how I become involved in it has become more and more real as time goes on.

And this verse is no exception.

The conviction of my prayer life is gripping me this week, and it says, you know, the end of the world is coming, and it says it’s coming soon, and I don’t know what that means exactly, but it tells me what my responsibility is to be earnest and disciplined in my prayers.

My prayers are most often earnest.

I think I like some of the discipline.

I have a younger brother, Mark, who’s, I feel, very disciplined in his prayers, and maybe all my other brothers are, but sometimes that challenges me.

And so there are two things that it says.

Not only are your prayers to be real, to be filled with conviction, to be true, to be honest, but they’re also to be disciplined, like regular, like coming to God on the regular for yourself, for people, for family, for friends, for the lost.

And I look at last week or the week prior verse where Paul says, I press on to reach the end of the race for the heavenly prize that God is calling us to through Jesus Christ.

And that is what I think it means to be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.