Refer to STEP 10: I believed that God still has a purpose for my life—a purpose for good and not evil.
How can you tell a Christian from a non-Christian? The Scriptures say you can tell them by their love for one another. If this is true of you, you’re witnessing no matter what you’re doing. If it isn’t, your witness is counterproductive. It’s why millions call Christians hypocrites, which quite often is an accurate assessment.
Let me be even more specific about witnessing. Anything you can do as a believer to lift up Christ is your responsibility. When you do, it’s His responsibility to draw men to Him—not yours. Lifting up Christ is not pushing Jesus. The former leads to salvation; the latter leads to alienation.
If you care for your fellow man; if you have compassion for those caught in addiction, despair, or any acting-out behavior; if you routinely display the fruits of the Spirit; you are a witness every day of your life—whether you say anything or not. You just don’t realize it most of the time.
If your walk with the Lord is shallow, if your beliefs are simplistic, and if you are unwilling to have your faith challenged or questioned, your witness is weak as will be the fruit you produce. Instead of proclaiming that which is not strong in your life with bumper stickers, tee shirts, and canned three-minute testimonies, wouldn’t it be better to strengthen your faith and knowledge before looking foolish to a seeker? It would take time but, when you are better prepared, your fruit would be rich, positive, and lasting.
Intellectually and philosophically, Christianity is time-weathered, profound, and enduring. At the same time, most Christians in America are unable to emotionally handle legitimate questions. They want pat answers to everything and, anything that questions their faith, angers them. That’s not the way Christ handled things and, if we are to be like Him, we can’t be that way either.
Most of Christ’s Disciples were ignorant men, but they changed the world. So can you but, before this can happen, you must strengthen the inner man by spending quality time with the Lord. Without it, you’re destined to have thoughts no deeper than bumper sticker slogans or tee shirt platitudes.
