Show What You Value – Show others your heart

Look around you.  How many of the people you come in contact with on a daily basis can tell you are a Christian?  They should come quickly to mind, because they are the ones you have witnessed to.  I am not talking about just saying the words to other people, I am talking about the way you treat other people.  Being a Faithshaper is all about the way you carry yourself, paying attention to the small details most other people don’t bother with, which shows more than words that you care.

 

Jesus was all about the little details.  That is Jesus not only spoke to others and told them that He was the truth, life and the way, He showed others that He was the Son of God in the way that He acted.  Read the following Gospel account and you will see Jesus showing others the truth of what He believes.  People want to see the truth and in Jesus they saw the truth. 

 

Matthew 8:1-4, in this passage a leper kneels at Jesus feet and asks Jesus if He it is will He could heal him.  Jesus has compassion and heals the leper.  There are two things that happen in this passage, first Jesus stopped to listen to the leper. He did not sidestep Him and move on and second Jesus said I am willing to heal you and He did.

 

What does this have to do with witnessing?  On the surface it does not appear this passage has anything to do with witnessing but if you look closely it does.  First, the man had definitely heard of Jesus because He approached Jesus and wanted to be healed.  This means Jesus had a reputation.  It also means that Jesus was known as a man of action and not just words.  Jesus did and lived what he said.  Jesus life was a witness to God even if He never spoke a word. 

 

This is how we should live.  Our reputation should be all that anybody else needs to know about in order to know that we are a believer in Christ.

 

How do we go about making our reputation speak louder than our words?

 

Show What You Value – Put God First

To start living what you value, which should be your relationship with Jesus Christ, it is necessary to find out what you value the most.   To find out what you value the most think about how you spend your free time.  Take out a pencil and paper and start to write down your daily schedule. Try to give as close an estimate as possible on the amount of time you spend doing each activity.   

 

Now that you have your list see how much time you spend reading God’s Word and praying to God.  Oops, is God missing from the list?  How can you hope to lead others to a relationship with someone when you yourself are lacking in the time you spend with Jesus yourself?

 

All of us have busy schedules but there is no excuse for not fitting in a quiet time alone to pray and read God’s Word.  You must learn to value this time alone and to hold it dear.  Only then will you be able to truly live the life that others need to see.  A quiet time alone with God is the beginning of a life of showing others what you value.  To show other who God is you must put God first then everything else will fall into place.

 

Show What You Value – A New Sense of Self-Value

Once you firmly have God first in your life you will start to see things in a whole new light.  It is amazing when you first take the time to view yourself for who you are, a child of God.  Most people fall short because they fail to see their self-value.  The Bible says that we are valuable to God and that He loves us so much that he was willing to let His own Son die for us.  Now if that is not placing a high value on us I do not know what is.  Think of we are sinners destined for hell but because of Christ we are found not guilty of our sins. 

 

Now by self–value I am not talking about being conceited.  I am talking about knowing your place and where you stand in your relationship with God.  Our value is in Him