4 Ways Your Faith Can Change the World

Here are four ways that your own personal faith in Christ can change the world around you.

Light in Darkness

The world is certainly increasing in wickedness, like it was in the days of Noah. But if we were bringing that much more light to the world, at least to those in our own little corner of the world, then we might be able to better illuminate Jesus. If they can see Christ in us, there’s at least a chance they might see Christ for the first time. Being a light doesn’t mean shining the light right in their face, hurting their eyes. It is a gentle light at first, not harsh, so that they have time to get used to it. Remember, we too once walked in the darkness of this world, being dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1-2) and were basically dead men (and women) walking, being both blind and dead.

Unjust Suffering

This is really powerful to those who are not Christians. Even though it’s been decades, I can still remember a friend of mine who was called to the foreman’s office and accused (unfairly) of doing something he’d never done. The fact is, I did it. He took the blame for something that I did. Only later, after repenting of it, did I confess it to God, to my friend, and to my employer. I had learned a valuable lesson. Despite my sin, he remained my friend and must have known what the Apostle Peter meant when he wrote, “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (1 Peter 2:20). My friend had just shown me Christ in himself!

Pray for the Lost

In my prison ministry, I sometimes hear from prisoner’s mothers. These precious prayer-warrior mothers are still pleading for prayers that their sons might be saved. In some cases they have been praying for 10, 20, 30 or more years. They’ve not given up. If only we prayed for the lost like these mothers. God can use us as a means to save some. Pray for divine appointments where God places someone in need of the Gospel to cross your path. This prayer really works!

Excellence in Employment

I remember being ridiculed at work more than once when I was a janitor several years ago. They saw me on the men’s bathroom floor scraping the floor with a razor blade trying to get the built-up uric acid off the floor. You couldn’t scrub it to get all of it off. Much of it took very physical labor, and some of my co-workers were irritated that I worked hard since I wasn’t getting paid that much. But all I could think about were two Bible verses that showed me that ultimately it’s not my employer for whom I work. It is God for Whom I labor, which is what Solomon meant in Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going,” and so “whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24).

Conclusion

Your own personal faith in Christ can change the world around you and bring light into the darkness so that you can bring those in darkness into the light when they see you don’t respond in kind when treated harshly or unfairly, they see you pray for those who hate you and for those who are blind and dead in their sins, and they see a work ethic that pleases God, which may just point them to Christ.