Sharing Your Faith

How would you respond if someone asked you, ‘Why do you believe in God?’

Jeremiah 6:1-30

Reference:  v.10  To whom can I speak and give warning?  Who will listen to me?  Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.  The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. (NIV Bible)

Explore:  The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about how we struggle to share our faith.  My friend is the only Christian in her family, she works in a secular field and most of her friends don’t attend church.  She lives in this difficult position of wanting to share her newfound faith with everyone and yet not wanting to push her beliefs on other people.  I don’t think she’s alone in finding this difficult.  Even as a minister, where it is pretty difficult to hide what you believe just by your occupation alone, I still find it difficult to challenge friends and family about their spirituality.

Application:  It sounds like the prophet Jeremiah was having the same struggles.  God had asked him to share His words with a whole nation who had turned away from God and, even though it was clearly God’s will, Jeremiah still felt like no one was listening to him.  But that doesn’t mean that he gave up.  Jeremiah proclaimed God’s word to a rebellious nation for many years.  I’m not sure it ever gets easy to share your personal faith with people you know but if we are willing to speak up and we ask God for the opportunity, it will come – usually at the time we least expect!  But when that time does come we need to be able to put into words what God has done in our lives and have the courage to speak the words when it happens.

Prayer:  Lord, it’s often hard to express all that you mean to us.  Give us the courage and the opportunity to share Your love and grace to those who surround us.  Amen.

How would you respond if someone asked you, ‘Why do you believe in God?’

faith, friend, Jeremiah, sharing