OH, Have I got something to tell you!

John 4:32-38     But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

Jesus had just witnessed to the Samaritan women at the well. He had told her of the Living Water that he possessed; he had shared with her the hope that lied in him. She was getting a first person account of the Gospel, she was learning of the hope that lie in Christ. She was so moved by Christ that she rushed back to town to tell everyone; it seems as the whole city was saved! Christ was explaining to the disciples of how they are to share their faith, and the rewards that come from sharing their faith. They may be the first person to share their hope; they may sow, or plant the seed in someone of the Gospel. They may reap that seed which another has sown too. They are told by Christ of the joy that is spreading the Good News; the eternal rewards that lie for us, not to mention the joy that we get when we see their faith grow right before us. No joy can surpass leading someone to Salvation; them answering that tug that Christ has placed on their heart in your presence is the highest honor bestowed on us as disciples. You will never experience that joy and honor if you do not share your faith; you are being disobedient at trying to keep Him to yourself; we are commanded to go and make disciples by Christ in his last words to us before ascending to heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father. (Matthew 28:19-20)

There is no “right time, or wrong time” to share your faith. You are to be ready to share your faith at all times. When Paul was charging Timothy to become a preacher, he spoke of this readiness to share in 2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. When you are standing before someone and feel led to share, it is in that instant you either obey the Holy Spirit living inside of you and respond, or you deny the Spirit and remain quiet. You may miss the opportunity to deliver a word that God had already given them, a God orchestrated coincidence that they see God’s work in repeating that which they had just heard. Inexplicable acts that even the lost come to see as God at work around them. This might be the time they are humbled to the point of breaking and confessing their sins to Christ in a plea of forgiveness and hope. This world around us in slipping away from God and it is your responsibility as a believer to point them back to God. You cannot save, but you can share who does, and let Him do the work he has planned since before time began. The greatest honor is to become a small part of his redemptive work for humanity.