Are you having trouble witnessing to friends and family of your faith? Our families know our good points and our faults. Too often they see the worst of our natures. This means sometimes they can be the hardest people to witness to, because they know us so well. Even Jesus found witnessing to family a difficult exercise as we see in Mark 6:1-6.
Jesus went to his home town and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. The scriptures tell us ‘many who heard him were amazed,’ verse 2. Despite His words and His works, people were amazed but they still refused to believe. They wondered how he came by his wisdom.
People are like that today too. Nothing, it appears, will convince some people about the truth of Jesus, but that is no reason to stop giving out God’s Words and doing His work.
Even Jesus found it hard to witness in his home town and to his family and neighbors. A large part of the reason behind this was they all had pre-conceived ideas about who Jesus was, verse 3.
What pre-conceived ideas do we have about Jesus? What preconceived ideas does God need to deal with in our lives?
People judged Jesus by the earthly family He belonged to, rather than recognizing Him as the Son of God.
If we are followers of Jesus, you and I are children of the King, adopted into God’s family. See Romans 8:14-5, Galatians 4:5-6, Ephesians 1:5. Do people judge us by our earthly family or the heavenly family into which we have been adopted? In our attitudes, our words and our actions, do we show the family likeness?
The people’s lack of faith in this place had a direct bearing on events. Jesus chose not to do many miracles there because of the lack of faith, verses 5-6.
Does our lack of faith limit what Jesus chooses to do for and through us?
Often what holds us back from witnessing to family and friends is fear of how they will react – fear of being ridiculed. It’s the same fear that can stop us from attempting great things for God.
Does our lack of faith stop us attempting great things for God?
All Bible references from the New International Version
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