Story Bearer - How to Share Your Faith With Your FriendsНамуна

Friendship first

Life is a team game, not an individual pursuit. We were created to connect with one another. We were formed for friendship. Sometimes, in a busy and individualistic world, we can forget how good it is to know and be known by another. And deepening your friendships with your not-yet Christian friends is one of the most significant things you can do to help them become followers of Jesus.

When your friendship grows with another, it is like you are drawing together your story and theirs. And if your story is intertwined with God’s story, this means that the better they get to know you, the better they get to know Jesus, who lives in you. Jesus recognises this in John 13, when he says, ‘By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ The more our friends see of our lives and hear of our story, the better chance they have of encountering Jesus.

The journey is a helpful metaphor for us when we think about friendship and faith. The best of friendships take time to form and develop. We walk together with people through the highs and lows of life. And it is on a journey that Jesus appears to the two friends on the way to Emmaus. They are talking to one another about their grief and their disappointed hopes. In this context of friends walking together, Jesus appears and tells God’s story, explaining ‘what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.’ Sometimes people come to faith very quickly, but for others, we can be walking with them for a lifetime.

We don’t become friends with people to convert them. We become friends with people because we are made in the image of the relational God and we are commanded to love one another. But we also recognise that it is through friendship that the gospel connects with people’s lives.

In the 2 Corinthians passage, Paul asks the church to make room for him in their hearts. It is when we make room for others, share our troubles and encouragements and engage in deeper conversation about life and faith, that our friends have greater opportunity to connect their story to God’s story.

So today, commit to being the best friend you can be. By doing so, you reflect the nature of the God who made us for relationship, but also you will be helping your friends draw closer to Jesus. The more they get to know you, the more they get to know the God you live for.