Many Christians are defeated in witnessing situations, and that for one of three reasons. First, they don’t recognize the situation as they arise. They don’t hear the longing in the heart of a co-worker for some relief from guilt or fear. They don’t think about Jesus and the promises of God when others are prattling on about their plans and dreams. They’re just not paying attention to the open doors of opportunity God presents to them. If they spent more time focusing on the promises of God and getting to know Him, they would be able to feel His nudges when doors of opportunity begin to crack open, and they would be ready with a timely word and an answer explaining the hope that is within them.

Second, some Christians don’t bear witness, even when they see the opportunity, because they’re afraid they won’t “get it right.” This is nothing less than presuming to do the Spirit’s work for Him. His job is to supply the words; ours is to open our mouths and start talking. If you’re growing in your relationship with the Lord and always moving toward His promises, you won’t lack for things to say whenever a witnessing opportunity arises.

Finally, some Christians don’t witness because they’re afraid of what others will think or say. But that is simply to fear men rather than God, to love your comfort rather than to walk the risky path of obedience.

The key to knowing courage in the face of witnessing opportunities is simple, as Jim Kennedy used to say, “Do the thing you fear.” Afraid to bear witness? Start bearing witness, and watch how the Lord shows up to provide the words, fill your heart with love and courage, and enable you to do something beyond what you’ve ever believed or done before. God promises we will be able to influence others, and He’s given us the Gospel to that end. And He commands us to be witnesses and make disciples. All that’s remaining for Christian courage to flow in a witnessing situation is to do the thing you fear. Start the conversation, and you’ll be surprised at the courage, clarity, conviction, and persuasiveness you are able to show.                (T.M. MOORE)

Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette makes this observation about the spread of the Gospel: “The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession or a major part of their occupation, but men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion.”                                                                       (TIM BEOUGHER)

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help
this  man, what will happen to me?” But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” Martin Luther King Jr

“I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.”
Mother Teresa

“ ‘If you can’t do great things,’ Mother Teresa used to say, ‘do little things with great love.’ If you can’t do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can’t do them with a little love, do them anyway. Love grows when people serve.” John Ortberg

“You can’t be a successful leader or mentor until you have served. You can’t serve until you have stepped out of your comfort zone. And you can’t step out of your comfort zone unless you have character and keep your word.” Bill Courtney

”Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God.” Rick Warren

The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived. In our me-first culture, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.

Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.

This is so contrary to the world’s idea of greatness that we have a hard time understanding it, much less practicing it. The disciples argued about who deserved the most prominent position, and 2,000 years later, people still jockey for position and prominence.

Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but few on servanthood. Everyone wants to lead; no one wants to be a servant. We would rather be generals than privates. Even Christians want to be “servant-leaders,” not just plain servants. But to be like Jesus is to be a servant. That’s what he called himself.

While knowing your shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. Remember, God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness. Without a servant’s heart, you will be tempted to misuse your shape for personal gain. You will also be tempted to use it as an excuse to exempt yourself from meeting some needs.

God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped. If you see a man fall into a ditch, God expects you to help him out, not say, “I don’t have the gift of mercy or service.” While you may not be gifted for a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one who is gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you’re needed at the moment.

Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity. No special talent or gift is required to stay after a meeting to pick up trash or stack chairs. Anyone can be a servant. All it requires is character.

It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant’s heart. How can you know if you have the heart of a servant? Jesus said, “You can tell what they are by what they do” (Matthew 7:16 CEV).                                                                 (RICK WARREN)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1: 5)

This word from the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, and   then God  goes on to detail His calling on Jeremiah’s life. Jeremiah was to warn Judah of God’s coming judgment against them.  He became known as the ‘weeping prophet’ because of his deep sorrow over the punishment Judah was to receive at God’s hand.  But aside from setting up Jeremiah’s mission, this text also gives us principles that explain what God has in mind for each of us:

God knew us from the womb:  Before our parents knew us, friends knew us, pastor knew us, church members knew us, teachers knew us, bosses knew us or anyone else knew us, God knew us.  He knew every feature and facet of your being.  So it doesn’t matter what anyone else has to say about you—good or bad—if it doesn’t agree with what God has to say about you.  He knows you better than anyone, yourself included.  And He knew you first.

God gave us purpose before we were born:  Some of us had wonderful biological parents who were materially and emotionally capable of raising us and taking care of us, praise God.  Some of us did not.  Some of us came from foster homes.  Some of us were adopted into different families.  Sadly, some of us think we’re mistakes because of our familial origins.  But before you were born God planned out a purpose for you here and now—something uniquely suited to your God-given skills and abilities.  Even if your biological parents didn’t plan for you to be here, God did.  And He’s planned out a purpose for you that will make life worthwhile.

God invites us to be a part of His redemptive work:  Once we learn who God made us to be and to what purpose God has for us, He invites us to become part of the international mission to spread the Gospel and usher in Christ’s second coming.  As a body of believers we are to participate in bringing the future promise of heaven to life on earth today.  Preaching and teaching to those who haven’t heard, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, providing for the poor and homeless, and other things Jesus Himself did when He was here.  There is no higher calling than doing God’s will here “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)

(RICARDO ALLEYNE)

Love requires action. It’s not a thing we try to
get for ourselves, but instead is an action we express to others through  sharing and serving.
Because love is an action, I believe there are three different forms of love God has instructed us to demonstrate, or “live out.” Each one needs to be in balance so they can work together.

#1 Loving God
So, how do you express love for God? By telling God, “I love You”? Singing praises to Him? These are good things, but they only scratch the surface.
We show God we love Him through obedience because actions definitely speak louder than words. I believe our level of obedience grows as we get to know and experience His love, goodness and faithfulness in our lives. Our desire to follow and obey the Lord’s commandments increases as we increase our love of God.

#2 Loving Yourself
When Jesus talked about the greatest commandment of all, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and said we are to love God with all our heart. But He also added the second greatest commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (See Mark 12:31.)
There’s something important here that I think people often miss: You cannot give away something you don’t have in you. How can someone love another person if they don’t love themselves? “You cannot give away something you don’t have in you. ”
We all need to accept ourselves, embrace our personalities and even our imperfections, knowing that although we are not where we need to be, we are making progress. Jesus died for us because we have weaknesses and imperfections, and we don’t have to reject ourselves because of them. God wants us to love ourselves and enjoy how He’s made us!

#3 Loving Others
If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still [spiritually] dead. (1 John 3:14).
Loving others is the only way to keep the God-kind of life flowing through you. God’s love is a gift to us; it’s in us, but we need to release it to others through words and actions. Left dormant, it will stagnate like a pool of water with no outlet.
The act of loving others is one of the most exhilarating things I have experienced. I feel excitement stirring in my spirit and soul when I plan to do something to make someone else feel loved and cared for. You can experience the same exhilaration just by “loving out loud.” Here’s a challenge: Think of three people you know who could really use a gesture of God’s love. Then think of creative ways you can express His love to these people, and do it. I guarantee you will feel a wonderful sense of fulfillment and joy afterward.                                                                      (JOYCE MEYER)

The apostle Paul suffered. He was imprisoned. He was beaten, often near death. He took 195 total lashes from his Jewish kinsmen on five occasions. He took three pummels with rods. He was once stoned — and then also shipwrecked three times. Then there are the endless dangers of travel in the first century, plus countless other experiences mentioned and unmentioned in the New Testament.

How did he take so much pain? So much loss? How did he prepare for suffering? The answer is in Philippians 3:7–8 – Counting Everything As Loss

Basically, the apostle took a long look at his life apart from Christ. All the things that he valued — his Jewish pedigree, his place in the upper echelon of religious society, his law-keeping — he took a long look at this list and wrote “LOSS” over it.

It wasn’t just the past values of his personal life. It wasn’t just “whatever gain he had.” Paul looks out into the future and declares everything as loss. Everything out there that could pass as positive. Everything good that he has yet to experience and everything which he will never experience. Compared to Jesus, everything is loss.

To consider Jesus better than everything else in the world is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

And that’s how Paul prepared for suffering. He saw Jesus as superior to everything else. John Piper lays it out this way: Suffering is nothing more than the taking away of bad things or good things that the world offers for our enjoyment — reputation, esteem among peers, job, money, spouse, sexual life, children, friends, health, strength, sight, hearing, success, etc. When these things are taken away (by force or by circumstance or by choice), we suffer. But if we have followed Paul and the teaching of Jesus and have already counted them as loss for the surpassing value of gaining Christ, then we are prepared to suffer.

This means that if we treasure Jesus, then every aspect of suffering in our lives is losing something we have already declared as loss. If when you become a Christian you write a big red “LOSS” across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ.

None of us knows the sorrows that may meet us tomorrow and are sure to meet us if Jesus tarries. We don’t know what hardships God will call us to walk through. But even though we don’t know them, we can prepare for them. And the way we prepare for afflictions then is by gaining Jesus now. It will not minimize the pain. Not at all. But we will know, even in the darkest night, that Jesus is our God and all, that He is our Rock and treasure, that He is enough. The way we suit up for our sufferings tomorrow is by cultivating our love for Jesus today.                                 (JONATHAN PARNELL)