Witnessing

I feel inhibited when I have an opportunity to share my faith.
Can you help me understand what's holding me back?

Barriers To Sharing Our Faith

Fear of Rejection

One of our greatest needs in life is to be accepted. Even as believers, we still look for the approval of others. Our dress, language, and habits are geared not only for our pleasure; they are also directed toward fitting into the cultural mainstream. Anything that removes us from our common ground of acceptance can be a distinct threat.

Sharing our faith in Christ with others obviously does not meet the established social status quo. In our society, we can talk about the weather, sports, people, and current events with a wide range of tolerance. Let the conversation turn to religion, however, and a curtain of resistance and discomfort is usually immediately raised.

Pursuing the subject brings such a risk of personal rejection that we usually drop the matter. We have transgressed into what our age considers a "private" topic. Broaching the subject again would be considered an invasion of our friend's personal privacy and perhaps sever our relationship.

Though the Scriptures indicate that Christians are called to be a "special people," few of us want to stand out. We prefer, to some degree, the safety and acceptance found in worldly conformity.

Fear of Failure

Many of us, however, have such a profound love and devotion for the Savior that we are no longer concerned how others perceive or treat us. We are not seeking to please other people, only God.

We hesitate to reach out to our neighbors with the Gospel, not because we fear we will be ostracized, but because we feel inadequate or incompetent. We are truly willing to share Christ, but we are afraid of failure.

We become paralyzed by such thoughts as What if they ask a question I can't answer? What if I don't present the plan of salvation in the right order?

This uncertainty can easily stifle our enthusiasm. Our zeal may be so diluted by our feelings of inadequacy that we never even extend the offer of salvation.

If you've experienced these feelings, you're certainly not alone. They are normal expressions of our frail humanity. Thankfully, though, the Spirit of God can supernaturally operate within our emotional framework to overcome these hindrances.