Right before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told us, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) How often do we do this outside of a church event where the purpose is to preach the Gospel? Do you proclaim the Gospel wherever you go? I know it is not a part of my daily routine. It is not a natural gut reaction to share the Gospel with everyone I see. Sharing the Gospel only seems to happen when I think about it or plan it. This shouldn’t be the case though. We should be so convicted by the grace of God that we want to scream it from our rooftops. So why isn’t this happening?
I think one of the reasons is fear. We start thinking about what others will think. Will they persecute us, call us names, will I lose them as a friend. All of this fear is a reflection of our pride. We start thinking of ourselves. What will happen to me? What will I lose? We lose sight of why we share the Gospel. Sharing the Grace and Love offered by Jesus to save us from eternal life in hell is the purpose. We tend to make it about ourselves and not about Jesus. This happens so naturally because of our fallen nature. It’s an uphill battle, but through the power of the Gospel, this fear will fade away.
I think another reason is we don’t have enough compassion and apathy for the lost. We all want to win the war, but are we actually willing to go to the battlefield. I think we lack the compassion and apathy because we have forgotten what it is like to be lost. We know we have hope for our future and we feel the Love of God surrounding us. We know Jesus walks with us wherever we go. They don’t have this hope. They don’t see God’s love reaching out to them. We know our future is secure and so we don’t always see the destruction in the lives of the lost. I think we don’t always see this because our lives are mostly filled with fellow believers. When we do interact with non-believers, are we actually engaged? When was the last time you actually engaged on a deeper level with someone who does not know God? I think if we actually engaged more, we would have more compassion and apathy because they aren’t just another human being, but something more.
When I look at the Apostles, they shared without fear and had great compassion and apathy for all. I think this is because they were so convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit that they couldn’t contain the Gospel. They had to tell all of Creation. Their hearts were so on fire for the Lord. Is your heart on fire for the Lord? Has Christianity become a checked box in your life? Don’t let your faith be a part of your life, but let your faith be the reason you live. If we aren’t pursuing God in our daily lives, we won’t be convicted to share the Gospel. If we don’t ask God to set us on fire for Him, we won’t be fired up to share the Good News.
Is your life God saturated or is it socially driven? Is your life flowing with love or is it bottled up? Ask God this week to set your heart on fire. Ask God to give you a burning desire to go and make disciples of all nations; that your strength would reside in Him and that you would find your worth in only Him. Ask to see the broken and the bruised, the ones without hope, to see those who need God’s love and God’s grace. Ask that the walls of fear would be torn down and to be filled with the courage of lions. Ask God to show you how to love and share the Gospel every day to those who need to hear it. Our strength is found in Jesus; lean on it.
