Gospel conversations – a risk worth taking

What would you say if someone asked you, ‘do you like to take risks?’ A wholehearted ‘yes, that’s me!’, or a definite ‘no, I like to play it safe’?

I would answer with a firm no if someone asked me that question. Not a single one of my friends would describe me as adventurous or risky.

Yet when it comes to sharing the good news with those closest to us, it can feel really risky. Even the most adventurous of us are familiar with that moment in a conversation where we worry we might offend a coursemate. We feel trepidation as we disagree with a parent or relative that isn’t a Christian. We feel exposed as we share our hope in Jesus with housemates that we see every morning.

This is because sharing the gospel with those closest to us can make us worry about our relationship with them. Which means there’s so much at stake, compared to simply inviting strangers to a CU acoustic night by handing out flyers.

So when relationships are on the line, why do we bother?

Here are two motivations to keep us sharing the gospel with our friends when it feels hard. Lamentations 3:21-24 says:

'Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.'

1) Because He loves them

It is because of God’s love for us that we are not destined to an eternity without Him, bearing the punishment for our sin. His compassion for us is endless.

We need to share the gospel with those closest to us because they must hear of the great love of God. A love that is sacrificial and steadfast, and that covers all our sin. A love all His people need to know about and place their trust in.

2) So that they can have hope

The writer of Lamentations is writing in the context of the Babylonian exile, a time of confusion, outcry and suffering for God’s people. Yet in the middle of that, the writer says that they have hope.

Do our friends have a hope to believe in that will not fail them? One that won’t crumble in the midst of hard times. Sadly, they don’t.

But God has placed you in the lives of your friends, coursemates, housemates and family to share of the hope we can have in His great love.

Despite the worry of rejection, feelings of fear and awkwardness, sharing the gospel with those nearest and dearest is the risk worth taking. Imagine if they came to know His great love for them? What a joy that would be!

Why not pray now, as you read this, that your family and friends' hearts would be open to hearing of the God that loves them?

This blog was written by London CU Staff Worker Emma Joseph.