How To Share Your Faith

Fears about Sharing Your Faith

All of us have friends, neighbors, relatives, people we work with who need God. Our hearts desire is that they would come to faith in Christ. The question is, what if your friends want to know how to become a Christian, could you lead them to Christ?

1. How do you get started?

a. You are not on your own. God is always at work in the lives of those around you.

b. Jesus himself said, when sharing your faith,

“…do not worry about how or…what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12.

c. Witnessing is simply sharing Jesus Christ, relying the Spirit,

and leaving the results with God.

d. “The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Acts 16:14

e. Our part is to share with them how to receive Christ.

The spirits part is to convince them they need to receive Christ.

2. How do you begin talking about spiritual things?

a. Pray and ask God to help you.

b. When you want to get to know someone, you ask questions about their life and journey. Just include questions about their spiritual journey.

c. I usually ask, “What is your church background?” By asking this question, you are giving them the opportunity to tell their story, what they have experienced, their spiritual journey.

d. One of the challenges about talking to our friends about Christ is that we often do no know where they are spiritually—seeking, confused, empty or angry at God. When you ask this question, your goal is to draw them out and let them tell their story. This is a good way to find out if they are open and responsive spiritually.

3. How do you to explain the Gospel? (What if I say the wrong thing?)

a. Seekers usually do not understand how wonderful the good news really is. They often think that they have to be a good person or a church-goer to get to heaven. They have tried that and it doesn’t work. People usually do not understand that coming to Jesus is like taking a shower. You don’t clean your body to take a shower. You take a shower to clean your body. In the same way, you don’t clean up your life to come to Jesus. You are invited to come to Jesus just as you are and He will clean up your life. He will forgive all your sins and begin to make you a new person inside.

b. A gospel booklet is a simple way to communicate clearly the gift God is offering them. You can give them a Gospel track, (like “Would you like to Know God Personally?” by Campus Crusade). You can read it together if you have time. Or suggest that he reads it on his own and prays the prayer at the end if it makes sense. Or suggest that he reads it on his own and you can talk about it afterward.

4. If your friend is ready, how do you help him to cross the line of faith?

a. The bottom line is that your friend needs to pray and ask Christ to forgive him and come into his life. It is between him and God, his heart and God’s heart.

b. Here is a suggested prayer (a sample prayer is always included in the gospel booklets):

“Lord Jesus, I need you. Please forgive me for all I have done wrong. Please come into my life and begin to lead me.”

c. Don’t get hung up on the words of the prayer. God is looking at his heart. The Key term in the Bible is the word “believe.” It refers to the attitude and response of the heart to God.

5. What if your friend is not ready to receive Christ?

a. To pick an avocado off a tree, you attach a coffee can to a long pole and raise it up under the avocado and then you jiggle the fruit. If it is ripe it will come off the tree easily. If it is not yet ripe, don’t be rough with it because you don’t want to bruise the fruit. So also in sharing Christ, if the person is not ready, don’t bruise the fruit.

b. A person coming to Christ is like a chain with many links. Each link represents one of the many influences that precede a person’s decision to receive to Christ. Our goal is simply to be a link in the chain, a positive influence on others for Christ so that we point them toward Him.

6. What if your friend asks a question you can’t answer?

a. You have not been called to be a salesman. You have not been called to be a defense attorney. You have been called to be a witness; to share with others what God has done for you (Acts 1:8).