June 17, 2015 Witness

What is it about witnessing that makes it so hard for most to do?  If you stop and think about what witnessing is in the general sense of the word it really doesn’t seem that difficult to do. Dictionary.com defines witness as “to see, hear, or know by personal presence and perception:

to witness an accident.”  So if you look at it like witnessing an accident means you were there and you have knowledge of what occurred in the accident.  To be a witness means to bear witness; testify; give or afford evidence.  If any of us were to witness an accident and had first hand knowledge of what happened I don’t believe any of us would have a problem recounting what we witnessed.  We can all agree that the act of being a witness is really not hard.  Why then is it difficult to witness for Christ?Is the reason we have a hard time witnessing for Christ because of the gospel we are bearing witness to?  Let’s look at the message we are sharing.  John 3:16 says ^“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  We have a God that loves us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us so we can have everlasting life!  That’s good news!  I wouldn’t mind sharing that.  Romans 5:8 says  ^“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   So as a sinner deserving judgement, Christ died for me!  Some one gave their life for me.  That’s good news!  Romans 10:9 tells us “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Once again this is very good news!  Why is this so difficult to share?

Being a witness is not hard and the gospel we share is really good news.  The difficulty has to be with us.  This is a real issue with many of us as believers.  There is is this fear in us that something bad will happen to us if we witness.  Maybe we will get rejected.  Maybe we won’t know what to say.  Maybe we will get made fun of.  All of those excuses are inwardly focused.  When we take our eyes and focus from ourselves and on to others these excuses seem to go away.

We live in a society that glorifies self-centeredness.  We are encouraged to have it our own way and we are told that it is all about us and what we want and need.  That has created a generation that does not really consider others.  The only way we can turn this trend around it to ask the Holy Spirit to change our hearts.  This is urgent.  The time of Christ’s appearing is getting closer all the time.  There are people that need to hear the good news that we have.  We are witness to what God has done in our life and we should always be ready share what He has done for us.  It’s not complicated if we consider eternity separated from God is what those that are lost will face if they don’t hear.  Remember this life is not about us, even if society tells us it is.