Hi Quest!
I know that title was pretty lame, but I couldn't think of anything. Anyway, I had a couple questions, and I was wondering if any of you could help.
First of all, one of my close friends is Hindu. I sit next to her in religion class, which is GREAT because I pretty much get to tell her about God every other day. I had a couple questions about this, though. Sometimes I explain something to her, and she says, "Oh. Well, I don't believe in it." Or, when I explained to her how Jesus wants us to get to know him, she said, "Well, sorry, Jesus, I don't believe in you." I know she's just kinda joking, but I'm not really sure what to say to that. Also, she is such a sweet girl, nicer than a lot of my lukewarm Christian friends. If we Christians are supposed to be different because of how nice we are and how strong is our love, but she's like that and she's Hindu, how are we supposed to stand out?
I feel like there was something else I needed to ask, so I might have to add it in later, but I can't think of it, so if you could please help me with this, that would be great! Thanks!
-Erin Walsh
Hey Erin! First off, I just wanna let you know that I am dealing with the exact same things. It can be really frustrating, but we gotta persevere anyways because it's all for the greater glory of God in the end. secondly, about the Hindu girl, what i would say is just a reminder that our words (whether we know what to say or not) are not going to change anybody. and also, not that you are doing this because im sure you're handling the situation well, but we are not called to shove the gospel down people's throats, you know? It gives the wrong impression of the message we are trying to get across. So here's what I've found to work: Constant, consistent, faithful prayer. pray all the time for her, pray whether you feel like it's working or not, and pray knowing that the Lord will deliver and work in her life the we He chooses.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as the "set apart" thing, that is SUCH an awesome question and I've had people ask me about it and i've even asked myself before: How are we supposed to be set apart as Christians when the non-Christians whoop our butts at loving people more than half of the time?! I can't say that I really know the answer, so I'm not just gonna make something up that I honestly don't know, but I do know that our loving others should be incessant. Ceaseless. Unending. think about it, eventually those "nice people" are going to slip up and be mean. and yeah, even as Christians we do too, but when we do, our attitude should be different. when we fail or slip up, we KNOW that we are forgiven and we KNOW that everything's gonna be okay despite whatever we did. those other people may not know that.
sorry this got way long, but i hope some of it helped! keep pushing through!
-Alexa
Thanks so much, Alexa! It's pretty sad, but I'd completely forgotten to be praying for her! Thanks for reminding me; I'm sure I'll stick to it now.
ReplyDeletehaha we all forget sometimes :)
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