And I will tell you
“16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!”
When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He commanded us to share the Good News. And indeed it is good news! The work of the cross is so wonderful we should be telling every person we meet. So then why aren’t we going around and shouting what great things He has done for us? When we have this light, why do so many believers choose to hide it?
The Bible makes it very clear that there is a difference between what the world believes and what the Church believes, “for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV). The Bible tells us that the ways of Jesus do not make sense to the world. It would be fair to say that not everyone is going to be receptive to the Gospel and that it will cause friction in relationships. Jesus Himself said we would be rejected because of Him.
I have, for a very long time, not been particularly vocal about my faith among my non-believing friends. If I am being completely honest, it is because I don’t want to be rejected. My faith is very personal to me. And in some ways very private. If I share my faith, and someone rejects it, they are essentially rejecting me. And I want to fit in. I want to have friends. I don’t want to be by myself. I feel like I will be isolated if I share my faith.
I have also been hesitant to share my faith because I’ve held on to this belief that because I have not always been perfect and because I have not always walked in the light, I am disqualified from sharing the Gospel. If I share the Gospel, non-believers will point out all the sin in my life. They will say that it is all hoax and that I am hypocritical. If my life and choices are not any better than theirs, why should they believe?
So being selfish (because that’s really what it amounts to), I choose not to share the Gospel as often as I should because I don’t want to be rejected. And, by believing myself disqualified, I am lacking the very faith I profess to have. But none of these are excuses for not sharing the Gospel. People are lost and are separated from God, both now and in eternity. How can we not share with a lost world the very Answer they need?
God has been so gracious with me in his patience for me to speak up. But I have come to a crossroads in my journey with Him where I have finally realized that as a believer, we cannot, and should not, live our lives not sharing the Gospel. But when you have been quiet for so long, when you have blended in with the world for so long,
How do you start?
I was sharing this with an elder of my church, and he wisely advised, “Start with your story; tell people what He has done for you. People can’t refute a personal account.”
Jesus is more than a religious figure. Christianity is not just about doing good. Jesus makes a way for us to connect to our maker and to live a life free from the burden of sin that we could never have apart from His sacrifice. If Jesus has radically changed your life, and as a believer you know He has, tell people about that.
I believe we can learn a lot about sharing our faith from this passage in Psalm 66.
“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for my soul.”
Notice who the audience is: “all you who fear God,”— fellow believers. We start first by telling our stories to other believers. We are all at different points of our journey. As believers we have all experienced the grace and peace that comes with salvation, but Jesus reveals himself to us more intimately as we continue to pursue Him. As we come across various obstacles, trials, and temptations, we better know His constant character and we learn to trust Him more. Sharing these experiences with other believers helps them along their journeys. The Bible exhorts us, on more than one occasion, to encourage one another. As we edify our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, it will also build our confidence to reach out to non-believers.
Moreover, as we do this, our expression of faith will be more authentic. It will change from spouting off catch phrases and generic verses, to a real and genuine telling of what Jesus has done. As we continue to honor God by sharing what He has done, the fruit of joy will fill our spirit. While non-believers might have questions or not yet be convinced, they will not be able to refute the genuine, authentic joy in your life.
Psalm 66 also reminds us how to share the Gospel:
“I cried to Him with my mouth and High praise was on my tongue.”
We acknowledge that He is Lord. We have to confess His lordship with our mouth. He, and He alone, is worthy of praise. He is our Creator and our Savior. Praise should be our constant language.
“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”
We recognize we are sinners, confess our sins, and repent. God calls us to repent and to live a life that bears fruit of that repentance (Luke 3:8). In addition to sharing our faith with others with our mouths, our lives should also show that we have changed. No, we are never going to be perfect after we become Christians, but we can model a life of confession and repentance. It is this posture of repentance, not our lack of sin, that causes God to incline His ear to us. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
“Blessed be God, because He has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!”
At the end of the day, it is about bringing God glory. It is about living a life that honors Him. We praise Him, daily, because He has not, nor will he ever, reject our prayer or remove His steadfast love from us. His love is faithful, even when we are not. We serve a loving God, who never turns from us. This is the God the world needs to know about.
We praise God for who He is. We praise God for what He has done because what he has done reflects who He is. We tell others who God is and who He is for us personally. God wants to be in relationship with us and we can help others see that and show them the Way to connect to their maker, Jesus. When we remember this truth, nothing should stop us from shouting from the rooftops about our faith.
So I have decided to to be more vocal about the great things the Lord has done. Come all you who fear and I will tell you.
