It seems like the most daunting task in existence, and it may very well be – helping a family member come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, Himself, said that the most difficult place for a prophet to find honor is in His hometown. This assertion was punctuated when the Nazareth synagogue leader and townspeople tried to throw Jesus off a cliff for simply revealing who He was.
Jesus somehow averted the crisis. (It wasn’t His time yet, and Nazareth wasn’t going to change God’s order and timing of events.)
The point is that the people most familiar with us can be the hardest to reach with the gospel. They have a built-in perspective of us as ordinary that clouds their view of the extraordinary truth we present about Jesus. They often have a false familiarity with Him and can’t seem to accept that He’s made us more than they’ve known us to be. Plus, in our case (unlike Jesus’) our past (and present) sins and mistakes compete with our message of eternal life in Christ.
Their view of us may not even be the biggest obstacle between them and faith. The biggest hurdle for them to get over may be the fear of a relationship with God. They probably see Him as a judge who will be more focused on their sin than on giving them the freedom and power they need.
The truth they need to understand is that they don’t need to be afraid. It’s certainly understandable, the fear of God as judge rather than the love for Him as savior.
Something about Heaven, and any being from there, is terrifying to mortals. Every time I know of that God or one of His angels came to connect with a human the first words from the Heavenly were “Don’t be afraid.” Then they would present Heaven’s message.
That’s what we need to do with our mortal family members as we try to share with them our Heavenly message. Don’t be afraid. You can trust God’s love for you, that He won’t hurt you, but will give you exactly the help you need.
They probably fear their inability to live as God will require. To that, we say, all He requires is that you trust Him to help you; whatever else needs to be done beyond that, He will help you do. In fact, He practically does it for you…
You don’t think you can live up to His requirement? There are surprises in store for you:
Surprise #1 – He’ll place His Holy Spirit in your heart to whisper the helpful message you need every moment.
Surprise #2 – Any time you fail (sin) along the way, He already has grace in place to negate that failure.
Let your non-believing family member know this: Walking with God will be much better than you think, so just trust Him. Don’t be afraid.