Perhaps the number one reason believers don’t share the Gospel with others is because of fear. Sometimes we fear rejection. Sometimes we fear embarrassment. Sometimes we just fear that we won’t know enough to answer the important questions that may be asked.
These fears keep us in safe and comfortable places. Instead of sharing Jesus, we just live our “Christian” lives. Maybe if we really understood the plight of the lost, our fears would be less important and we would do more to reach the unsaved. William Fay described our situation this way:
"One night I had a dream. A woman clutched a little girl, struggling to hold her child's head above the water. Nearby, a wave plunged a man into its salty depths. He choked for air as he thrashed his arms against a ceiling of water. All around, the ocean churned with drowning people, gasping for air and desperately trying to push their heads above the surface. Their screams were doused by the roar of the relentless waves. Their cries caught the wind, but only in vain. They were alone in their terror, with no help in sight.
Then a huge rock appeared, and a voice called into the darkness. People began crawling up the rock's craggy sides to safety.
But when they got to safety, something happened that drove me almost goofy. The people who emerged from the waves got busy. They got involved in building rock gardens, rock lives, rock jobs, listening to their rock music, and going to rock meetings where they talked about people who were still drowning in the ocean. But nobody went back to the water's edge to help.
Have you ever tried to run or yell in a dream? In my dreams, I can do neither. Yet I tried to yell at the top of my lungs, "How could you have forgotten you were once in the sea?"
As I watched the "saved" scurry about their rock work as I listened to their rock talk, I realized the rock was the cross of Calvary. The voice they heard was Jesus, calling by the power of the Holy Spirit, inviting them to come join him. He's never high up on the rock where it’s safe; he's calling from the ocean’s edge, where the dead, the diseased, and the lost are found, and as you might recall, that's where he found you.
Did you know that as few as 5 to 10 percent of people in an average church have shared their faith in the past year? That means 90 percent of us have chosen the sin of silence. Just like in my dream, those who were drowning have gotten so busy and involved with the safety of "The Rock," they've forgotten to reach out to those who are still drowning."
Isn’t that sad? We have something that everyone should know about, but at most 10% of believers share their faith in an entire year. Let’s change that statistic! There are lots of great resources out there to better prepare you to share Jesus with unbelievers. One of the best is “Share Jesus Without Fear” by William Fay.
