Bible Reading: Matthew 5:13-16
Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:16
“WHOA-telling people about Jesus?” you might think. “I have to get my act together first before I can talk about Christ.”
You might be one of a huge number of Christians convinced that their lives aren’t good enough for them to say anything about Christ. That’s a huge problem. How come? You will never completely get your act together. You will always fall short-and always feel guilty, frustrated, and hopeless.
”I’m not good enough” isn’t the only misguided attitude that keeps people from speaking up about Jesus. Some people fear ugly reactions if they tell others about Christ. They don’t want to anger or offend people, so they clam up. Others fear their tongues will knot up if they try to share the gospel. They don’t want to confuse people with anything less than a perfect, complete, persuasive answer.
Each of those attitudes will keep you from being part of God’s massive, exciting work in your world. Here are some ways to rethink those attitudes and see yourself as useful to God-which is exactly how he sees you:
If you think you aren’t “good enough” to witness for Christ, you have a limited sense of God’s love for you. The more you see yourself like God sees you-unconditionally accepted, forgiven, created in his image-the less you will let your imperfections be a barrier to sharing. God wants to use you even while you are “in process,” growing as a Christian.
If you fear the negative reactions you might face as you witness, you have a limited sense of your worth to God. Depending too much on others for approval suggests you have a low view of your worth to God. God thinks so highly of you that he allowed his Son to die for you. You are valued by the King of the universe. Even if everyone refuses to listen to you, you are still of high value to God.
If you are reluctant to witness because you fear you will say the wrong thing, you have a limited sense of your competence in Christ. If you fear stumbling over your words, you’re saying to God, “I know you want me to witness, but you’ll need to use somebody more skilled and confident, because I’m not any good at this.”
Witnessing doesn’t start with what you say or how well you say it. Your starting point is knowing who you are in Christ. You are God’s beloved child-unique and useful to him just the way you are.
REFLECT: What keeps you from speaking up about Christ? Is there anything about how you see yourself that God wants to fix?
PRAY: God, I just want to be who you created me to be. Help me to share my faith the best I know how and leave the results to you.
