The Purpose Driven Life, Chapter Thirty Seven
Sharing Your Life Message
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When you became a believer, you also became God's messenger. God wants to speak to the world through you. You may feel you don't have anything to share, but that's the Devil trying to keep you silent. You have a storehouse of experiences that God wants to use to bring others into His family.
Your life message has four parts to it:
1) Your testimony: the story of how you began a relationship with Jesus
2) Your life lessons: the most important lessons God has taught you
3) Your godly passions: the issues God shaped you to care about most
4) The Good News: the message of salvation
Your Life Message includes your testimony. Your testimony is the story of how Christ has made a difference in your life. The essence of witnessing is simply sharing your personal experiences regarding the Lord. Sharing your testimony is an essential part of your mission on earth because it is unique. If you don't share it, it will be lost forever.
Personal stories are easier to relate to than principles, and people love to hear them. They capture our attention, and we remember them longer.
Another value of your testimony is that is bypasses intellectual defenses.
The Bible says "Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect." The best way to "be ready" is to write out your testimony and then memorize the main points. Divide it into four parts:
1) What my life was like before I met Jesus
2) How I realized I needed Jesus
3) How I committed my life to Jesus
4) The difference Jesus has made in my life
You have a story for every experience in which God has helped you. Be sensitive and use the story that your unbelieving friend will relate to best. Different situations call for different testimonies.
Your Life Message includes your life lessons. The second part of your life message is the truths that God has taught you from experiences with Him. These are lessons and insights you have learned about God, relationships, problems, temptations, and other aspects of life.
While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. There isn't enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another.
Write down the major life lessons you have learned so you can share them with others. Here are a few questions to jog your memory and get you started:
What has God taught me from failure?
What has God taught me from a lack of money?
What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression?
What has God taught me through waiting?
What has God taught me illness?
What has God taught me from disappointment?
What have I learned from my family, my church, my relationships, my small groups, and my critics?
Your Life Message includes sharing your godly passions. As you grower closer to God, he will give you a passion for something he cares about deeply so you can be a spokesman for Him in the world. It may be a passion about a problem, a purpose, a principle, or a group of people. Whatever it is, you will feel compelled to speak up about it and do what you can to make a difference.
God gives us different passions so that everything He wants done in the world will get done. You should not expect everyone else to be passionate about your passion. Instead, we must listen to and value each other's life message because nobody can say it all.
Your Life Message includes the Good News. The Good News is that when we trust God's grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven. God has never made a person He didn't love. Everybody matters to Him.
We must care about unbelievers because God does. Love leaves no choice. If you've been afraid to share the Good News with those around you, ask God to fill your heart with His love for them.
As long as you know one person who doesn't know Christ, you must keep praying for them, serving them in love, and sharing the Good News. And as long as there is one person in your community who isn't in the family of God, your church must keep reaching out.
Your mission field is all around you. Don't miss the opportunities God is giving you.
Your life message has four parts to it:
1) Your testimony: the story of how you began a relationship with Jesus
2) Your life lessons: the most important lessons God has taught you
3) Your godly passions: the issues God shaped you to care about most
4) The Good News: the message of salvation
Your Life Message includes your testimony. Your testimony is the story of how Christ has made a difference in your life. The essence of witnessing is simply sharing your personal experiences regarding the Lord. Sharing your testimony is an essential part of your mission on earth because it is unique. If you don't share it, it will be lost forever.
Personal stories are easier to relate to than principles, and people love to hear them. They capture our attention, and we remember them longer.
Another value of your testimony is that is bypasses intellectual defenses.
The Bible says "Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect." The best way to "be ready" is to write out your testimony and then memorize the main points. Divide it into four parts:
1) What my life was like before I met Jesus
2) How I realized I needed Jesus
3) How I committed my life to Jesus
4) The difference Jesus has made in my life
You have a story for every experience in which God has helped you. Be sensitive and use the story that your unbelieving friend will relate to best. Different situations call for different testimonies.
Your Life Message includes your life lessons. The second part of your life message is the truths that God has taught you from experiences with Him. These are lessons and insights you have learned about God, relationships, problems, temptations, and other aspects of life.
While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. There isn't enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another.
Write down the major life lessons you have learned so you can share them with others. Here are a few questions to jog your memory and get you started:
What has God taught me from failure?
What has God taught me from a lack of money?
What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression?
What has God taught me through waiting?
What has God taught me illness?
What has God taught me from disappointment?
What have I learned from my family, my church, my relationships, my small groups, and my critics?
Your Life Message includes sharing your godly passions. As you grower closer to God, he will give you a passion for something he cares about deeply so you can be a spokesman for Him in the world. It may be a passion about a problem, a purpose, a principle, or a group of people. Whatever it is, you will feel compelled to speak up about it and do what you can to make a difference.
God gives us different passions so that everything He wants done in the world will get done. You should not expect everyone else to be passionate about your passion. Instead, we must listen to and value each other's life message because nobody can say it all.
Your Life Message includes the Good News. The Good News is that when we trust God's grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven. God has never made a person He didn't love. Everybody matters to Him.
We must care about unbelievers because God does. Love leaves no choice. If you've been afraid to share the Good News with those around you, ask God to fill your heart with His love for them.
As long as you know one person who doesn't know Christ, you must keep praying for them, serving them in love, and sharing the Good News. And as long as there is one person in your community who isn't in the family of God, your church must keep reaching out.
Your mission field is all around you. Don't miss the opportunities God is giving you.