For the past month, we have been studying salvation and its dependence on faith. We’ve learned our hope is built not on what we do, but on what we know to be true. And we’ve learned salvation is a gift of love that none of us deserves. Today, we’re going to study the need to share this amazing truth.
Paul tells us in Romans 10:13 that all we have to do is call on the name of the Lord and we will be saved. Yet many people have not heard about our Lord. Others may have heard about him, but haven’t been told about the gift of salvation. Unless believers are willing to share their faith, these people will not hear the good news. And if they don’t hear the good news, they will not be able to call on the name of the Lord.
The call to share
Jesus commanded us to share his story: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Paul says, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). Why? Because many don’t know God at all, and others are zealous but misguided. In short, “people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). We who know the truth have an obligation to share that knowledge.
The fear of sharing
Sharing our faith seems to be one of the greatest challenges we face as Christians. Part of the trouble may be the social taboo against it. You’ve heard there are two things we should never talk about—religion and politics. You may have noticed, however, we don’t have any trouble talking about politics. Religion really is in a class by itself.
We seem to think evangelism will turn us into religion junkies who push religion onto strangers. With this mindset, we fear being perceived as obnoxious and rude. Then there’s the feeling that sharing Jesus is like reading a poem to your freshman English class. It’s too much like public speaking, and most of us are less afraid of dying than of public speaking.
Sharing our faith doesn’t have to be a big deal, though. Our goal as Christians is for our faith to become as natural as breathing. When our faith is that natural, sharing our faith is easy. You see, salvation really is good news. And like any other good news, it deserves to be shared. Far from being Jesus-pushers, we’re people who have some good news to share. And we don’t have to force the subject. We just need to be ready. What we need is a testimony.
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A living faith needs a living testimony
Testimony can seem like a big, scary word, but it shouldn’t be. If we have a living relationship with God, we already have a testimony. It’s our personal collection of faith stories about how God has worked in our lives, leading, rescuing and blessing us. No two people will have the same testimony.
Because a testimony is the story of a relationship, it should continually change. Every time we interact with God, our testimony will grow. But in the same way, a testimony can grow stale if it isn’t kept up-to-date. If God hasn’t been doing anything in our lives lately, we need to evaluate our relationship with him.
Be bold
Many of us are afraid our testimony is too bland. We weren’t “bad people” before getting saved; we were just ordinary people who one day woke up to the realization we needed Jesus. So we hesitate to share our story, believing it isn’t powerful enough to be effective. But when we do this, we judge God’s work in our lives, and essentially, God himself.
God gave us our stories for a reason, and he can make them more powerful than we realize. We just need to speak in faith and let God do the rest: “It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, … so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:13, 15).
We don’t have to be taught how to share the good news either. Peter and Paul didn’t attend special training before taking their stories into the world. They just boldly spoke, trusting God to make their words understandable and their meaning clear. “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5).
Just do it
Because we are so comfortable with our salvation, it’s easy to take it for granted. But the confidence that we will spend eternity in heaven isn’t something we should keep to ourselves. Whether you feel you have the “gift” of evangelism or not, you need to tell your stories.
Don’t worry about the results. How our testimony will be received is up to God, not us. Sometimes we will be planting a seed. Other times, we will be encouraging a fellow believer. But that isn’t our worry. All we need to do is tell our stories and let God take care of the rest.
Discussion questions
• How comfortable are you sharing your faith with others?
• Have you ever had the opportunity to share your faith, but failed to do so?
• What stopped you?
• Is your testimony current? What are your faith stories?
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