tootrukid asked: hello ma'am! i have a question. back at school i have met a few people who have been hurt and mislead by people who claimed to be Christians and love Christ ,but denied Him with their lives. because of these experiences they either say "i believe there is a God, but i don't know if it's the God of the christian bible", "I believe there is a God but i want nothing to do with Him" , or "there is no God altogether". what is the best way to approach these people?
In humility, listen without always trying to prove a point. Ask God to help you understand why they believe what they believe about Him. Understand that you were where they were once even though the things they believe are super irritating (lets be honest), when we understand that we believed that once (at least to some degree) it’ll help us approach them with meekness.
These type of people already have their minds made up and they’ve already come to a conclusion. You said the key words when you said, “people who claimed to be Christians and love Christ, but denied Him with their lives.” If that’s the case then just words for them aren’t going to cut it, they have to see Christ in us (which is hard and I personally feel like I FAIL at that EVERYDAY) because they’ve heard people say it. The problem is they don’t see anyone doing it, that’s what will draw them in. When we treat others like we want to be treated, when we live our lives and our doctrine closely, when we practice what we preach, when we help the poor, when we’re giving, when we’re loving, when have a gentle and a quiet spirit, etc.
None of this is a piece of cake but with Christ all things are possible - its all apart of the sanctification process we’ll all get there but it takes us working out our own soul salvation with fear and trembling. Maintaining a healthy fear of the Lord until He comes - which if we fear the Lord, it’ll definitely show in our actions anyway. We’ll miss the mark a lot of times along the way but God has given us grace to walk this walk and it’s process of progress.
I’m trying so hard to learn all of this I just replied to - so keep me in prayer, that I walk in humility, keep my mouth shut, walk in patience, bear with people, stay out of my flesh, and let things roll off of me like water off of a ducks back.
I pray this helped you, there’s scripture in this but I just didn’t post the scriptures but if you need them let me know.
God bless bro,
Shae
