By What We Say and Do

READ: COLOSSIANS 3:12-17; 1 PETER 3:15

Have you ever wondered how to go about sharing your faith with friends and family? It can be scary and a bit confusing, but God is ready to help us.

Sharing Jesus with others involves more than talking. It involves the ways our whole lives—both our words and our actions—show the good news of Jesus. In very practical terms, it’s important that while we share our faith we don’t try to change people. Instead, we let our actions show them how Jesus is changing us. As we do this, we can rest in God’s love. Our lives can impact those around us, not because we make anything happen inside them, but because God is the One doing the work in each of us (1 Corinthians 3:6-8).

Sharing our faith isn’t about being perfect either. In fact, because we still have our sinful natures until Jesus returns, we will absolutely mess up—in both what we say and what we do. But the good news is, when we fail to love God and others well, all we need to do is talk to Jesus, apologize to those we’ve hurt, and rely on Jesus to help us turn away from sinful behavior. We can move forward in faith because we know that our sins are forgiven through Jesus’s death and resurrection.

So today, sharing our faith starts with resting in God’s love for us. As we lean into relationship with Jesus, we grow to become more and more like Him...more kind, more compassionate, more trustworthy. And this is a lifelong process. So, when we share God’s love with others, it’s because God loved us first (1 John 4:19). We get to invite people to know the One who loves them unconditionally and wants to have a close relationship with them forever. • A. W. Smith

• Who would you like to share your faith with? Consider taking a moment to pray for them and ask God: "What might a conversation about faith look like with this particular person? How could my actions communicate Your love to them?" Then, write down anything that comes to mind.

• Who are trusted, mature Christians in your life you could talk with about good ways to share Jesus’s love through your words and actions?

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Colossians 4:5 (NLT)