How do we help our loved ones have faith in the lord?

How do we help our loved ones have faith in the lord?

Asked by Eby

How do we help our loved ones have faith in the lord?

Hello! Thank you for your question.

This is probably one of the deepest heartache christians experience, when our loved ones do not share the same faith that we have. I share the same pain with you as both my parents are non-believers.

There are many passages in the Bible that teaches us how to help people, especially our loved ones, to know God.

Firstly, prayer is the most important. In the Bible we see that Paul is always praying for people to know God. Since it is God who works in people’s hearts to convince them to believe in Him, we need to ask God for his mercy on those who don’t know him.
Secondly, we need to live out the faith that we believe in, as well as tell people about our faith.

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6)

Therefore we are to live wisely, in a way that is consistent with being a christian saved by Jesus and following Jesus as Lord. We also need to be careful about our speech, so that the things we say will lead to conversations about God. Part of the problem with living as a christian in a family is that they see you “warts and all”. Parents have changed our nappies, dealt with our rebellion and seen us in every possible mood. So living as a christian before them, showing them how you have changed and what it means, takes time (years) and effort but can also be the most powerful witness.

When our witness and our speech encourage others to ask us about our faith, we need to take the opportunity to tell them the good news about Jesus! When we do speak about it though, we need to be gracious and generous, polite and gentle, not argumentative. We do need to tell them the truth, but in an appropriate way. I think it is particularly important not to “preach” at families but simply answer questions in a creative and encouraging way.

Thirdly, we need to fulfil our family responsibilities in a way that is honouring to God. If we want to attract our loved ones to believe in Jesus, we need to follow the way God teaches us to relate to them.

The Bible teaches us in many places how we are to relate to our family members. Ephesians 5:22 – 6:4 and Colossians 3:18-21 teaches us how to relate to each other as husbands and wives, parents and children. 1 Peter 3:1-6 especially teaches christian wives how to relate to their non-believing husbands in a godly way to attract them to the faith.

All of these are not easy to do. We need God to help us and this again comes back to prayer! 

Answers are kindly provided by our friends at Christianity.net.au

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