When gathering with friends and family, we are told not to bring up either politics or religion; that is, if we would like to enjoy a peaceful visit.
There are a whole lot of reasons not to talk about my religious beliefs.
On one hand, Christians have earned the reputation of being awful. Judgmental, hypocritical, mean-spirited, closed-minded, even hateful. This breaks my heart. I don’t want to be associated with that. So I’m reluctant to claim “Christianity” for myself.
On the other hand, the story of Jesus seems ridiculous. To a nonbeliever I can see how it would sound complicated and confusing. God has a son? He turned him into a human and then had him killed? What for? Then brought him back to life? How does that help me?
It’s challenging to admit to believing that without having a much longer, deeper conversation.
Today’s verse encourages me to ignore all those reasons not to talk about Jesus. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
Jesus says if I’m ashamed of Him, He’ll be ashamed of me on judgement day. (Luke 9:26) I don’t want that.
So despite what other people may assume about me when I mention Jesus — that I’m hateful or just a fool — God insists that I lovingly share His Good News, the Gospel of Jesus:
God loves you so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to die in your place. And then He defeated death entirely so if you accept this gift and believe in Him by faith, you can have eternal life.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for the sacrifice you made to save me from my poor choices and from death that is forever. Thank you for offering life forever instead. I’m sorry for being afraid to talk about you, for caring more about what people think of me than what you think of me. Please forgive me. Show me when and how I should be bringing your name into my conversations to be most effective and give me the courage to do it.
CamDevo 