Prayer Connection
Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news.”
1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you: yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
Those commands are difficult tasks for me and many of my Lutheran and Episcopalian friends and other congregants of liturgical denominations I’ve known. It is easier to tell people what church I attend and give it a rave, 5 star review than to tell them about the spiritual journey I’ve been on during my 85 years of life; tell them how my faith has grown; sharing what it’s like to have Jesus in my life; talking about how I was healed from several potentially fatal diseases and saved after a horrible car wreck.
Why is that?? What am I afraid of? Is it weak faith? Is it fear that no one will believe me? Or I may be ridiculed, or will they deny the possibility of divine intervention? Is it that I don’t have a list of biblical verses stored in my memory bank or theological wisdom, and I’m not gifted in apologetics to back up my story. Perhaps it’s my pride, not wanting to sound uneducated, silly, prideful, foolish, or lacking in confidence.
Clearly, I need to work on this; to always speak from the heart, to pray that Jesus will present the opportunity to share my story, to be bold and seize the opportunity, and to trust the Lord to give me the words.
Do you have a faith story to share? Can you dare to share?
Holy Spirit, inspire us to be bolder in sharing our faith. Set our hearts on fire to share God’s love with those you put in our paths. Help us to be witnesses to your power and grace. Amen
Faithfully, Sue Justis