How to Thrive in TeenagehoodSample

Sharing Your Faith

One thing Christians don’t realise sometimes is that you don’t need to get to the foot of the cross in every conversation you have with a non-Christian.

In John 4, Jesus said when talking to his disciples after meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well that there was a planting season and a gathering season and that we as Christians have different roles: “one sows and another reaps” (v. 37). Both are vital in their season and work together for the same end - “so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together” when the fruit is harvested. Therefore do not worry if you find it difficult to harvest (directly bringing someone to Christ) and if you never go into the field at all, as it is okay to sow even if you don’t reap. After all, there’d be no harvest without sowers like you. Harvesting can come easy when the seeds are well cared for and hence the fruit becomes ripe.

However, the fruit isn’t always ripe for harvesting and therefore going to the foot of the cross in every conversation may not be the best approach. If you did try to harvest too early then they may reject it, or only come to Christ out of an emotional reaction made in the heat of the moment, not an informed and thoughtful choice which they would not later just abandon. So instead, (in the words of Greg Koukl), “try to put a stone in their shoe”. This means attempting to get them to go away from the conversation thinking about something you intended them to think about.

It probably doesn’t mean wearing a shirt wherever you go which says “Jesus is Lord” on it as this might just creep people out! - and it may not sow any seeds. If anything it could get them thinking Christianity is judgemental as they will not read those words in the same way that we do because their worldviews are different. Instead, if a door of opportunity is opened, pray quickly for wisdom and ask yourself “what one thing can I say in this circumstance, what one question can I ask, what single idea can I offer that will get the other person thinking?” And then try and put that stone in there!

Also, sometimes actions can speak louder than words. Spreading the light of Jesus through actions can make a person think more than what you say to them, for example if you are always showing unconditional kindness they might ask you why/how you can be like that.

Chaos theory, otherwise known as the Butterfly effect, was coined by meteorologist Edward Lorenz, who discovered in the 1960s that tiny butterfly-scale changes resulted in anything from sunny skies to violent storms- with no way to predict the outcome. Wild stuff! Kind of like dominoes. This theory describes how we can always have a part to play, whether it is large or small, sower or reaper, in gardening a seed for someone’s soul to find Christ one day.

Questions:

Do you find yourself sowing or a reaping more often? Or both?

How can you put a stone in the shoe of the next non-Christian you talk to?

How do you think could prayer have an effect on the people that are in your life?