Taking Faith Public

Have you ever wanted to share your faith but felt too scared to do so? Or. Do you struggle to pray or open up your Bible in public? The other week I was flying to Australia for Christmas and before take off I always say a prayer. So I’m sat there alone, with my hands together, eyes closed, praying to myself. Afterwards I looked to the right and wondered what the lady beside me was thinking. She had been watching me pray the entire time - little awkward.

See, growing up my parents would always say a prayer before a flight, and we’d pray it aloud with our heads bowed and I’d think nothing of the people around us, but now, travelling alone and praying publicly by myself can make me feel a little self conscious.

I have this book that I’m reading at the moment called ‘Classic Christianity’ and I pull it out wherever I get the chance. Example; train trips, breaks at work, coffee shops etc. and the title obviously with “Christianity” capitalised on the cover makes it pretty obvious to the world around me that I've got something religious going on. Anyways it just so happened that after I prayed I decided to pull out this book and read it as the plane took off.

The lady to my right that had been watching me pray looked over again, and then a couple more times. I decided to strike up a conversation and ask her about her travel plans. Before long she was comfortable enough to ask about the book. It went into a long conversation about how she'd always wondered about God, but never really asked someone about Him. By the end of the conversation she was more interested in faith. I could have taken the seven hour flight as an opportunity to spiel onto her about all of the wonders of God; but I'm always a little conscious of making sure I'm not coming off too strong. I’m like most Christians, I want to be used for a greater purpose. But there’s a line between wanting to bring people to God and actually having the confidence to do that, to share your faith with people that don't know anything about Him. You may say “but Christians have a bad reputation these days” or “my friends would tease me for my faith” but to that I say; be the change. That reputation you fear has been created by people that used religion as a weapon for their own personal agenda, and then another group of people furthermore exploited the situation for profitable gains. This reputation is something that now puts a lid over your relationship with God, only to be lifted when in the safety of a Church or fellow Christians. Be the change, let God flow over the containment of reputation; whether you be in public or online. You can be the voice that changes perspective, even if it's one stranger, one friend. Your voice doesn't have to be loud, it just has to be used.

Ask yourself; what if Jesus never died for us on the cross? What if Jesus never performed the miracles that he did? What if Jesus did nothing he was called to do - because he wondered what the people around him would think. We read in Luke 22:54-62 of Peter disowning Jesus three times, we all wondered how Peter could do that and hope that given the same chance we'd never make the same mistake. He was given three opportunities and denied Jesus each and every time. It makes me wonder; how many times are we given the opportunity to share Christ but deny it in ourselves to do so? How many times a week are we doing exactly what Peter did? Imagine the kind of Bible we’d have if you took out every bold move a character made. David was a tiny boy, walking past a bunch of older, stronger, bigger trained men. They probably looked at him and laughed. “What’s this little shrimp going to do that we can't?” But David was bold. Bold enough in his faith in God to walk past all those men and fulfil how God wanted to USE him.

Think about it. How many opportunities do you think God has given you to be used where you’ve let fear win? There's no purpose in opportunity without action.

Now of course once you start allowing yourself to talk about God freely, you open yourself up to questions you might not know how to answer, or you may feel uncomfortable answering (being a Christian doesn't necessarily make you a Religious Scholar afterall). A lot of these questions may relate to the LGBT community as this is one of the more pressing conflicts between Christianity and Worldly communities today. Remember when speaking on these topics that; you don’t need to love what people do to love people the way God intended us to. You can easily sit in the security of a church and detest a gay man, but sit yourself next to a gay man - on your own, ask him what he thinks to Jesus and when he says he hates Jesus, ask yourself; what kind of Jesus have you been portraying? A loving Jesus? Or a judgemental, condemning Jesus? We aren't just representing a religion we are representing what we believe in, and what we believe in is what we should represent. If we believe in Love, we should represent love. If we believe in forgiveness, we should represent forgiveness. If we believe in the teachings of Jesus, we should REPRESENT THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS.

Christianity calls for a real portrayal of Jesus. Let’s redefine a Christians reputation, YOUR reputation. So that you don’t have to feel ashamed by the hysteria around your faith. Let’s take our opportunities when given them. If there’s an opportunity to share your faith - do it! If it feels like you should speak up but you feel awkward and keep that lid on your faith - DON'T. Un-lid that thing. Be confident in your faith, take.it.public. Feel awkward! Feel self conscious! Let the feelings exist but don't let their existence diminish the point of yours!

This is going to sound harsh but; be laughed at - what's the worst that could happen? You thought being a Christian was going to make life easy? No way, we are at a war between good and evil every day. But God promises that He will grace your bold, He will bless your strength, courage, honesty and all your good works. He will strengthen the foot that stepped out of its comfort zone.

Ask yourself. Who are you helping, what are you changing, if you worship in secret, if you follow in silence?

I don't want your faith to be one that can be switched off. "Oh its Sunday" *switches faith on* "Oh Church is over" *switches faith off* I want your faith to be so powerful that you can't help but disciple some truths into the hearts of the unsaved.

2 Timothy 1:7 says; ‘For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self discipline.’ The smallest conversation can have the greatest effect on how people perceive not only you, but everything you stand for. I’m not saying start handing out flyers and preaching on the sidewalks. I’m simply saying, don’t do a Peter, don't deny Jesus. If the opportunity arises be bold but also remember who you're representing.

Whats a question you struggle to answer from non-Christians?