Life Ministries

Thoughts on Prayer - 2
Colossians 4:1-6

Speaking to others about God:

As we study verses 5-6, we’ll gain some insight into how to speak to others about God. This is where prayer dovetails with evangelism as we discover that our ability to impact people is directly related to the intensity of our intercession in prayer. Billy Graham used to say that the success of a crusade was the result of many people and many churches praying for many weeks before the event.
    Verse 5 focuses on how we walk. In verse 6 the emphasis is on how we talk. We must balance our life and our lips. Let’s look first at verse 5: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”
1. Be wise. To be wise in the way we walk means that we’re careful not to do anything that would open the door for others to point a finger and make it difficult to share the gospel. Often this simply means that we need to remember that those who don’t yet know Christ are watching us. When we pray, God will give us open doors. Let’s not shut them by our behavior. Will Rogers once said; “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”
2. Make the most of opportunities. We are all given many opportunities every day to share our faith and to be salt and light in our world. Try to accomplish as much spiritual good as you can in all your relationships.
3. Be gracious. Verse 6 challenges us to guard what comes out of our mouths. Our wise walk should lead to wise words: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” It’s important that we communicate with words of grace when we speak with those who don’t know Christ. Unfortunately, many times believers go off on people who are living in sin. Or, we let loose about a moral issue in our culture, forgetting that there may be someone listening who is caught in that particular sin. When we’re filled with anger and rage and self-righteousness, people feel judgment, not hope.
4. Be appetizing. Our conversations need to be seasoned with salt. Salt enhances flavor and makes food appetizing. “Salty speech” in Paul’s day referred to witty and clever discussion. It was the opposite of being boring or monotone. When we talk about our faith, how can we not be interesting? In one of our Growth Groups we’ve worked on giving our testimonies. One of the common themes in almost all of them is a funny story or interesting comment that peaks the interest of the hearer. Salty speech makes people thirsty for more. We should be talking about Christ in a way that makes someone’s mouth water! What is it about your story that would cause others to listen?
5. Be ready. When we choose to mix it up with people who don’t yet know Christ we need to be ready to give them an answer when they ask us some questions or make comments. Another way to say it is that when we are gracious and appetizing, people will want an explanation. This is a natural process that will happen when people see Christ in us. Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Some comments I have personally had were – “I don’t like church, it’s so boring!” Or, “I have been (hurt, insulted, ignored, snubbed, etc.) in church before.” I don’t know, all this spiritual stuff is kind of scary!” If you think about it, we can all probably relate to what they are saying. Be prepared to give an answer…For some people “church” is not the answer, but maybe a home group or some other non-church setting would be.
    In all of these things we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide our thoughts and our hearts and our speech, as we speak to God about others and as we speak to others about God.