Story Bearer - How to Share Your Faith With Your FriendsUzorak

Connect your story to God's story

So far we have outlined three distinct stories that are active in great faith sharing: God’s story, our story and their story. We now turn to the beautiful dynamic that takes place when these stories collide. Ultimately, our role as evangelists is, in partnership with God, to draw these stories closer together, like three circles in a Venn diagram. We begin with the intersection of our story and God’s story. The key idea is this: The closer we are to Jesus, the more we will live like him, speak like him and the more of him our friends will see in us. Jesus’ words in our reading from John remind us that, our calling is to remain in him, like a branch grafted to a vine, rooted and connected. This is the only way to be fruitful as Christians.

We do this primarily through obedience: Jesus says, ‘You are my friends if you do what I command.’ God calls each of us to be faithful to him by putting him first, ahead of all the other distractions and idols that vie for our attention. It is so easy for our job, family, sports team, love of money, the latest gadget, social media following, favourite band etc. to replace Jesus on the throne of our lives. Jesus commands us to remain in him. There is then a connection between loving God and loving others. He says there is no greater love than they that lay their lives down for their friends. We demonstrate that God is in the right place in our lives by the way we treat those around us, with generosity, kindness, compassion and grace.

Finally, we must connect regularly and deeply with God’s story through his word. When we read the Bible, we get a hold of the story and the story gets a hold of us. The Psalmist writes that he has been so enveloped by God’s law that it is hidden in his heart and deters him from sin. Our proximity to God’s word also helps us with the confidence and skill to engage our friends with the good news. In our Acts reading, we observe Philip speaking to the Ethiopian eunuch. His knowledge of scripture not only gives him the confidence to speak up and ask, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’, but it also acts as a spring board to begin a conversation about the heart of the gospel, ‘Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.'

Today, may you desire to draw your story closer to God’s. May you choose obedience to him and love for others. And may you throw yourself into the Bible afresh, for your sake and for the sake of those around you.