Witnesses to God's Goodness

The amazing love and faithfulness of God toward creation is evident in that even though many people deny God’s existence, God still lovingly sustains their lives. Recently it occurred to me how often Christians modify their language or restrain from speaking about their faith out of consideration or concern for how those words will be received by others. It is true that we should not speak in an offensive way in public, but there are ways of sharing our faith that is not offensive. How we share our experience of blessing shapes how people think about us and our situations. As we share our faith, do we not partner with God in establishing the Kingdom? Jesus knew how to spread his ministry during his time on earth.  Will he not be gracious enough to give us innovative ways to spread his word in ways that can be received by others?

Faith cannot be supressed and an overflowing cup will always get noticed. When Jesus healed the blind man, the man was questioned about his healing (Jn 9:13-34). The man himself stood there, living his miracle, but the Pharisees could not accept it. Their questioning of the blind man and then of his parents kept on going, for what had happened was beyond their imagination. When we share our testimonies, people may question us in a similar way. They might laugh or not pay heed to our words of faith, but for us who believe Jesus is real. We cannot convince people of God’s existence; that is God’s work alone. But we can be a witness to God’s goodness in our lives. This is our part.     

Sometimes we allow our faith to be taken over by our fears. And so, this is what Paul prayed for all of us; ‘that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that come through Christ Jesus – to the glory and paise of God” (Ph 1:9-11, NIV).