Whether Jesus was meeting needs, making friends, or moving people toward God, in all cases, He had real spiritual impact. And there is no reason we can’t do the same. Where is God giving you these opportunities? Ask God to show you those around you who do not know Him, and ask for the opportunity to share your faith.
We should always be looking for places around us where we can meet people at their points of need—whether it is helping them deal with sickness, helping them get their children home from school, or taking a little extra time to listen to someone explain a problem—we make a strong statement about how much we care. There is nothing that opens people up to a relationship like having a felt need met by someone who cares about them.
MO - I’ve been reminded over and over that we are all hurting and we live in a broken world. Everyone needs forgiveness and to be loved. God is also working among us to draw who He chooses to Him. Whether it’s His divine will or that He knows the stubbornness in our hearts, He knows us. The more we love Him, the more we desire to be available for conversations.
As Christians, we are called to live counterculturally—that is, to not adopt the thinking and behaviors of a world that doesn’t follow Jesus. But it’s important to be relevant to our audience, to identify and celebrate healthy, wholesome cultural practices within the community that are not in conflict with biblical teaching. When we aren’t sensitive to the culture in which we minister, we do harm to the core of the Gospel: Jesus came to us, on terms we could understand, so that we could have a relationship with Him. To effectively follow Jesus’ model, we must understand the people to whom we are speaking, and we cannot alienate ourselves from community life and context.
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