New Year’s is a time that most of us make resolutions and goals for the upcoming year, some of us will attempt to lose some of that holiday weight we put on, others will learn a new hobby or give up a bad habit. I want to encourage you to consider a more eternally rewarding goal for 2016. Almost all Christians know that it is our job to evangelize, to share our faith with our unsaved neighbors, family and friends. However the vast majority of us don’t share our faith and don’t make any intentional choices to pray for or seek to see those we know come to know Christ. So this year why don’t we make it a goal to pray for God to use us to see at least 1 person come to know Christ as their Savior. A lot of Christians are either afraid of evangelism or don’t know what they should do, so let me give you some helpful ideas –
- Pray. Start by simply praying for God to give you one person that you can pray for everyday, once God answers that request then pray for that person to come to know Christ. Prayer is one of the methods God uses to burden our hearts and to ignite a passion for the lost in us.
- Build Friendships. John MacArthur said “The best soil for evangelism is friendship”. The people that know you and trust you are the ones that are going to be most likely to listen as you share what Christ has done in your life. Feel like you don’t really have any unsaved friends? Then start looking for them, join a mom’s group, go to community events, talk to other kids parents at soccer games, be creative. God has put lots of people in our paths that we can impact for Christ, we simply most notice them.
- Hand out Tracts and Other Literature. Our church offers door hangers that our members can take and use to invite their neighbors to church. Maybe for you it would be helpful to carry a few gospel tracts with you or to buy some bibles to give to friends and neighbors.
- Serve in the Church. Maybe your opportunity to lead someone to Christ will be a child at VBS or Awana or maybe through another outreach ministry of the church. If you are not serving then you will be missing out on these opportunities to impact someone else for Christ.
There are lots of good goals we can make for 2016, and losing 20lbs or taking up a new hobby would be awesome things but why don’t we seek a goal for 2016 that will have an eternal impact. Who’s salvation will you start praying for this year?