When it comes to sharing your faith, do you resemble one or more of these characters?
- Scarecrow: “Lord, I don’t know enough to share my faith. I don’t know what to say. What if they ask me things I don’t have the answers to?”
- Tin Man: “Lord, I don’t have the heart to talk about Jesus. Could it be that I either don’t really care that much what happens to them, or that I don’t love You enough to do what you say?”
- Lion: “Lord, I’m too afraid to evangelize. I’m fearful of messing up or offending people. What if they ridicule or reject me?”
- Dorothy: “Lord, this must be some mistake-I don’t belong here. I just want to go home! You can’t mean for me to stay in this strange place & deal with these people.”
- The Lord: “You already have what you need! You have the life-changing Good News,the truth of Scripture & the power of the Holy Spirit within. Go make disciples!”
- You can’t claim to have no brains-that you’re ignorant-because you know what the Gospel is! (See 1 Cor. 15:3-4). You don’t have to know everything in the Bible, but you can tell people the basics & how to respond (John 3:16 & Acts 2:38, southpointccc.com/factsoflife). You can also learn His Word better & how to share the plan of salvation better.
You can’t claim to have no heart, because if you’ve responded to the love of God through Christ, then His love for others is already in you. Jesus demonstrated compassion (Mark 9:36), so we can’t be His followers while being apathetic toward people’s greatest need which is salvation. Ask God to help you see people as He does & for His love to flow through you to them.
You can’t claim to have no courage because He has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7). Like Paul who asked for prayers so that he would open his mouth boldly to proclaim the gospel (Eph. 6:19-20), he approached people with trembling, not relying on his own eloquence & charisma but on the power of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:1-4).
And while you may just want to get through each day in a way that takes you back home to be alone or with family in peace & comfort, God calls us to engage, not escape. Jesus went through all that trouble (an understatement!) to leave His home to come here to seek & save the lost. Before He returned home, He left us with that same mission to take as many people as possible with us to our new home! Though there are demonic dangers in this witchy world, we’ve always had the power of God within us ever since coming to Christ to be victorious.
I admit I struggle with being the Tin Man & the Lion often. But as we’re going down the yellow brick road of life, we encounter people along the way who need what we have.So we have to intentionally make the effort to go out of our way to make friends, to bless people, to walk through open doors of opportunity. Pray along the way: “Lord, go before me & prepare the way & give me the words to say!” Start conversations. Maybe talk about your church background as kids. Or maybe about some issue people are struggling with, family problems, a recent death, or moral issues our kids are facing today.
Then you can turn the subject to the spiritual. Mention prayer, church, or even say something like: “You know, I’ve been a follower of Christ for a while now. Would you like to know a little more about a relationship with Him?” Don’t get too “churchy” or hyper-spiritual in your language. Approach conversations more like you’d talk about a great restaurant you’ve tried, or an exciting movie you’ve seen. Word-of-mouth testimonials are still the most effective way to talk about the Lord-because people are looking for answers to the big questions of life. Invest in relationships, tell your story, invite them here.