THE GREAT COMMISSION: The Gospel in Everyday Conversations

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:5-6

Sharing your faith doesn’t always look like preaching. It’s often found in casual, Spirit-led moments: on a lunch break, next to someone in a coffee shop, in line at the store, or chatting with a neighbor. Your tone, sincerity, and language matters. Most of my conversations about faith are in the form of my testimony to some extent.

My first experience with God, faith, church, all that as a child was filled with physical abuse and neglect by a person in a religious cult. I felt overlooked and forgotten about by God as if He didn’t know who I was. But if He did know me, then He probably didn’t like me very much. I believed Jesus was real, He never sinned, died on the cross for everyone - I believed the Gospel was true for everyone else but me. And I lived with that for years.

When I was 12, I dealt with self-harm and two attempts to unalive myself. I saw a demon when I was 13 while walking home from school. Everything changed when I was 15 years old. My uncle was a Gospel singer and invited me to attend the youth group at his church. I heard a message on pain and forgiveness, exactly what I needed, and I hope my hope, trust, and life into Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

So, I sympathize with people view God negatively because of pain and trauma and use moments of my story to introduce hope to others. The beautiful thing about your testimony is that it is YOUR story of how God saved you. And you have a freedom to share as much, or as little, as you want. You don’t have to force the Gospel - just live it, speak it with kindness, and be ready. Let grace do the heavy lifting.

THIS WEEK’S GOAL: Think about your testimony and write it down. Then, practice telling your testimony to yourself to get it down to 2 minutes. Being able to efficiently tell the story of how God saved you is a powerful tool. Once you are confident in the 2 minutes, tell it to at least one person. A friend, family member, a stranger, etc.

FOUNDATION PROMPTS:

• Are you comfortable with sharing your testimony? Why or why not?

• Where is God opening a door for Gospel-centered conversation?

• What does grace-filled speech look like for you today?