The focus of this entire month in sharing our story, the story of God moving and working. The importance of it. Ways to do it better. Reasons why we should and when we should. This week's practice is a culmination of what we will be looking at all month, the whole picture of sharing our faith..... specifically without embarrassment. It should come as no surprise that the goal of this week's practice is to....share your faith with someone without embarrassment. All that is left is to discern Why? How? When?
Your faith is a story of the way you have walked with God and His promises, it includes victories, failures, high moments and low moments. When you share the fullness of your journey you have a better chance at touching someone who needs to hear it because more than likely they are not in a good place somewhere along their walk(Life is hard). The goal is to look to a reliance on God the entire time so as we walk through these steps realize that God is in each and every one of these seven steps. Remember Our Vision For This Year To Love Our Neighbors(the 8 people God places closest to you)
1) Pray- Seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to place a person on your heart that needs to hear your story and that in the revealing of that person that He would speak through you into the heart of that person in a way that you can not.
2) Watch- If you asked for a person...then you should look for an opportunity to speak to that person daily. Ask the lord "show me the person you are bringing into my life"
3) Reach Out- when you feel like you understand the person that the lord needs you to share with, find a way to talk to them and simply create a way for you and the person to get together and talk(coffee, lunch break, go for a walk).
4) Listen- START by asking them about how they have been and continue to create opportunity for them to talk about THEIR LIFE and then JUST LISTEN and do this in a way that shows them that you love listening to what they have to say. don't be in a rush, don't have a goal to meet, just listen to them and the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
5) Connect- Once you have listened to that persons heart for long enough then you may have an understanding of what piece of the Gospel they need to connect with. you can do this by showing a piece of your story that God lead you through "I went through something similar" or "I had a friend who had the same thing happen" then show them how the Gospel connects to their current circumstance.
6) Share- At the point that you have connected them to a truth from the Gospel you should look for an opportunity to share your testimony and the way that God had lead you through a number of challenging times. do this with humility and compassion. show your weakness and failure to move forward without God and remember that we are asked to "be ready to give a defense at all times for the Gospel"- 1 Peter 3:15-16 the goal is to show them why the Gospel gives you Hope, Peace, and Life through Jesus.
7) Invite- you have now connected yourself to another person's story and the places where they feel weak and you have connected them to not only the truth of the Gospel but your personal story and struggle as well. You now have an opportunity to give them an open door to the community that gives you life on a weekly basis. As you do this, realize that you are the lifeline in this situation and having you with them the entire time will give them comfort and peace to step into something unknown. This invite should be a weekly reminder of how nice it was to have them there each and every week.
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