Three Easy Ways to Share Your Faith

So, you’re traveling in your RV to places, destinations and experiences.  After settling in for an evening of relaxation and personal time with your spouse, a new neighbor comes over, starts talking and won’t quit. Once past the clichés and the predictable “Where ya call home?” exchange, a question related to your spiritual beliefs may arise.

How do you share your faith with a stranger when you now may have entered a “divine opportunity”?

God places us into situations of opportunity to share our faith – meeting seekers on the street, talking to RVers in resorts, while fueling our vehicle or even when waiting in line in a restaurant.  Any and every situation is an opportunity to focus our discussion towards eternal matters.

We – being not ashamed (Rom 1:16) but somewhat shy when expressing our spiritual beliefs – can easily miss the obvious chance to dialogue about our faith.  We don’t have to be a renowned evangelist, pastor, chaplain or professor of a famous seminary; we simply have to be just us – an Ambassador for God (Gal 5:20).

But what can you do to open a dialogue on faith?

Here are three easy ways to start that conversation:

1.  Start with a question

When I am making a phone call I always ask, “How are you doing?”  This is a simple query, but it will evoke a response each time.

Several years ago, I posed this question to a tech support guru whom I had called regarding a problem. The response to my simple question was chilling, to say the least! The tech was experiencing depression because there had been no sunshine for almost a month and his friend had committed suicide the day before my call. Ironically, this tech was also considering suicide!

What was to be a simple five to ten minute tech-support call lasted over forty-five minutes as we unpacked the depressing feelings the tech was experiencing.  A faith statement was shared, the gospel was presented and the call was concluded. A potentially fatal situation was hopefully was avoided.

While the above scenario is an exception, carefully asking questions and listening to a person’s “story” will generally present opportunities to share our faith, whether on the phone or face to face. Ask anyone a simple question – wait-staff, counter sales persons, movie ticket-takers (even tech-help personnel) – and through their answer you can seize the opportunity to share the Gospel and let the Holy Spirit do the rest!

2.  Tactfully ask the person with whom you are conversing, “How can we pray for you?”

My wife and I joined another couple for a lunch in a buffet type of restaurant where interaction with the wait-staff is typically for only a few moments as you serve yourself (always too much).  Because we always pray before our meal, we asked the table attendant if there was anything she needed for.  What followed next was an unexpected flood of tears and emotion.

She was in the middle of a nasty situation and felt abandoned, lost and lonely.  We could not have known that from her smile and servant attitude. We sincerely asked the question and she willingly answered.

Needless to say our prayer for blessing went beyond the meal to the soul that was crying out for a simple prayer. Although the outcome of that waitress’s tough situation is unknown, four Christians responded to the distress response of a simple question,  “How can we pray for you?”

We simply listened to the need, responded to the opportunity and raised the situation to our Lord for His resolution within His will.

3.    Share your faith by “heartbeat example”

You are the best person to model Christianity, God made you that way (John 15:8).  The way you live – sharing your faith by your living (heartbeat) example – is by far the best way to bring Jesus Christ into focus to a life that is blurred by the world.

Live your faith, breath your faith, display your faith through your actions and deeds(Matt 5:16). Present your faith by loving the ever-talking neighbor, by asking simple questions and offering to pray for even a stranger’s needs. These opportunities are at your doorstep for a divine reason.

We all have busy schedules, tasks we need to complete and private times budgeted for relaxing.  I personally like several TV shows that I enjoy watching.  However, many times God has other plans for us (which is why we have a DVR to electronically capture the show for a future viewing).

Each of us has a similar built-in DVR for sharing our faith – we simply need to place our personal life on pause for a few moments as we listen, share and pray in our process of “loving our neighbor as ourselves” (Luke 10:27).

We may only be traveling through a locale for a day or two. That’s relatively just a few moments during our stay on earth compared to our stay with Christ for eternity. Although our “heartbeat” life may seem miniscule when compared to our “heavenly heartbeat”, we are commanded to reach those who do not hear, understand, believe or accept the offer of eternal life through Jesus (Mark 13:10).

Have you shared your “heartbeat” example recently?

Visit Bob’s website www.crmintl.org

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