Care Much?

Dear Friends,

Why do you think it is that most Christians don't share the gospel? Is it because we’re afraid we may not have answers to the tough questions people can ask? Or is it because we’re not sure where to start the conversation? Or could it be that we’re afraid people will think we’re “fanatics”, or “offensive”? It’s probably a bit of each of those reasons, plus others that I haven’t listed. But I think underlying all of that is the fact that most of us just don’t care enough.

I’ve been thinking about the subject of sharing the gospel a lot the past few days because of an article I read in which they cited a recent study by The Barna Group. In it, they found that only 1 in 20 Christians has ever shared the gospel with another person, and only 1 in 10 think they should. And as I wondered about why that might be, I just kept coming back to this idea that it must be that we don’t care enough. If we did - if our hearts were truly breaking over the fact that our friends, neighbors, and even family members are in danger of spending an eternity separated from God because they don’t know Christ - then the excuses we come up with for not sharing the gospel would seem trivial to us.

The great evangelist D. L. Moody described it this way - “Winners of souls must first be weepers of souls.” In other words, if we want to be motivated to share the gospel, then we have to first of all care. We have to ache for the people who are lost more than we care about ourselves and our own comfort, convenience, or reputation. The Apostle Paul drives this point home in Romans 9:2-3, where he writes, “My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people. I would be willing to be forever cursed - even cut off from Christ! - if that would save them.” If we are going to be used by God to reach out to the lost, then we have to actually care about the lost.

So today, let’s ask God to help us care. Let’s ask Him to give us His perspective, His compassion, and His love for the lost people in our lives. And then, let’s ask God to help us use all of those things to motivate us to speak the powerful truth of His saving love and grace to those who most desperately need it.

Amen?

Daniel