As you read earlier, Cru’s definition of successful witnessing begins with “Taking the initiative…” Why is this?
First, we initiate with others because God initiated with us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His love towards us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (italics mine). God didn’t wait for us to come to Him, but sent His son to earth while we were going our own way, avoiding Him and His ways.
Secondly, we initiate because He commands to. He tells us to, “Go and make disciples” (Matt 28:19), “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), and (Jesus speaking) “As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.”
Finally, as our lives are changed it’s important for others to know how this happened. Others may look at your life and try to duplicate what they see as if this were a human effort, as if one could pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But when we take the initiative to share what Jesus has done, they will know our new life is God’s work, done in surrendered and cleansed hearts.
There is a sentiment in some Christian circles that we must earn the right to be heard. There is some truth to this, as we’ll discuss in the next section, but it is also true that we can be in relationship with someone for years and never get around to sharing the gospel with them.
We don’t want to be passive or paralyzed about questions of timing. It isn’t our responsibility to guess how others will respond to the gospel. It is our responsibility to take the initiative and share the gospel….and let God do His work. We want to be people who are passionate about connecting people to Jesus and that passion should show itself by taking the initiative.
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