Share Your Faith with Others: Three Important Items to Keep in Mind

This is not an easy topic to give a clear cut answer, but I will do my best to do just that. There are so many different way to share your faith, but I believe there are three main items that need to be in place in order to share your faith with those around you.

1) Serve the One True God

As Joshua 24:15 in the NIV points out, "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Does your household serve the one and only true God? If you do then I'm sure you are well aware of the sacrifices He has made on your account. To allow His own Son to hang there on that cross: bloody, broken, dying for us. Even those who mocked him and spit on him. To think that someone was willing to lay down their life so you might have a chance to live, only asking for you to live for him. I cannot imagine that kind of love and sacrifice, but I am eternally grateful for His willingness to do that for me. Do you serve the risen Lord, with all you do or are you one of those who mocked and spit on Him?

"If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it." (Matthew 10:37-39 NIV)

2) Practice What You Preach

So you might not be an ordained minister with years of high level training in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic. You might not even feel comfortable telling others about you believe in. Sometime you might not even need to say a single word to share your beliefs. If you are a believer in the one true God, live the life you want others to see you living. The Bible commands us not to lie or steal. So if you go around lying to everyone, or taking things that belong to others, what type of image do you think you are sharing?

Christ lived a simple life where he treated others, not necessarily the way they deserved, but the way the Father desires to treat us. Matthew 25:40 points out, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"(NIV) The way we treat our fellow man, the way we carry our lives, should reflect the way Christ would do the same. We often hear people throwing around the saying "What Would Jesus Do?". Ask yourself seriously, would Jesus lie to others or steal from them?

3) Preach What You Practice

Just as upon discovering something it is in our human nature to share with someone, do not hesitate to share things you discover about God with others. Sure you don't want to be known as the religious freak around work or public in general, but ponder on John 17:14-15 in the NIV when it says "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." So, we can see we are "set apart" from this world. We are here in the world, but are not to be of the world. We are already looked upon as different by the world. To me keeping things to yourself is like denying you are a Christian. Remember, being a Christian has nothing to do with what religion you follow. A Christian is someone who is a follower of Christ.

I leave you with this one final thought. If you were asked today if you believed in the risen Christ and God, what would you say? Be careful of your response because Matthew 10:32-33 points out: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." (NIV) I pray that you live a life worthy of God's love, forgiveness, and the opportunity to return to live with Him after the journey here are done.