Quiet Devotions is a daily devotion based on one of the readings from the Daily Lectionary (as it appears in the back of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Augsburg Fortress, 2006). All biblical quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) unless otherwise noted. May these devotions help bring you in closer relationship with the Triune God.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Year B, Seventh Sunday of Easter


Inspired by 1 John 5:9-13

“And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”  1 John 5:11

We know that God has called us to be witnesses, to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to all the world.  But how?  It seems simple enough, until you sit down and think about what you’re going to say.  How do you articulate the gospel to someone who isn’t familiar with the bible?  What if you’re not fully confident in your own ability to understand the bible?  What if you’re shy, and you just don’t know how to approach people?  Perhaps it would be better if this whole evangelism thing was just left to someone else.

None of us has that luxury, because we’re all called to be witnesses.  We’re all called to be evangelists.  But it doesn’t have to be that difficult.

We don’t have to be biblical scholars or systematic theologians in order to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to have outgoing personalities.  All we have to do is live the lives of grace we have in Christ Jesus, confident of God’s love for us.  And when someone sees the love of God reflected in our lives and asks us what it is that they’re seeing, we don’t have to instruct them in the faith; all we have to do is say, ‘Come and see,’ and then invite them into the fellowship of believers.  Once we’ve invited them in, we’ve engaged the whole body of Christ to assist us in our witness.

Our lives are in Christ, and with our lives we testify to Christ.  Fulfilling our call as witnesses doesn’t have to be any more difficult than that.

Let us pray.  God of truth, you give us eternal life in your Son.  Help us to live our lives in such a way as to testify to your love, that we may be your witnesses in all that we say and do.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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