Evangelism is at its best when it is coming forth from the overflow of a heart happy in the Gospel.
We do this kind of effusive sharing all the time with “good” stuff we discover. Just the other day, I was sitting around the table with some friends swapping “must-watch” movies and shows. We each would excitedly exclaim, “Have you seen such-and-such?! You’ve got to watch it! It’s so good!” When you love something, you can’t help but share it with others.
When the apostles were asked to refrain from evangelizing, they said they couldn’t help it. They said, “[W]e cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). They couldn’t unsee the goodness of the Gospel, and as a result, they couldn’t stop talking about it.
So maybe one way to strengthen our evangelism would be just to make sure we’re seeing the gospel, that we’re enjoying it ourselves, that we’re being nourished by it.
We might remember Paul’s words: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16).
Or we might echo Paul’s prayer: “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:17–18) or “…may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is” (Ephesians 3:18).
May the Lord open our eyes and hearts to comprehend more the goodness of the good news, that we might overflow with its message in our lives. Amen.
dg