Lenexa UMC Devotion

LUMC Devotion “Whenever anyone asks you to speak of your hope, be ready to defend it.” (1 Peter 3:15) This past month in youth Sunday School we talked about sharing our faith and ways we could go about that. Sharing our faith with others is important but can also be challenging. So, we went through a few little exercises to help us out. We started off creating our own faith timeline, to be able to see moments of our faith journey and where we stood today. I believe it’s helpful to look back on how far we’ve come in our faith and lives and to see the wider picture. I’m sure there’s some happy moments, moments we didn’t think we’d be able to get through, moments of strong belief in God, and moments of little to no faith for all of us. Each bit, each challenge, each doubt, is important to our story and important to share with others. The next step we took was putting our faith into 3 short sentences. Now, this can be a hard one, trying to summarize our faith into 3 sentences, but it can be done! It helped us to start small and to work our way up to the big faith topic. We started with summarizing what we were wearing that day and what we had for breakfast that morning. Then, we eased our way into summarizing our faith by describing what the church meant to us, what our faith looked like, & what God meant to us. By using just three sentences, it helps us to organize and express our thoughts and to have more of a concise story to share with others. A common three sentence statement of faith we hear often in the church is: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. I want to challenge you to write your own three sentence statement of faith this week. You are free to start small with describing what you had for breakfast, or you can jump right into your faith statement. I have provided a few of my own three sentences below to help you get to thinking! Breakfast: I had a cheese stick and some OJ this morning. The OJ was refreshing. The cheese stick was not enough and now I’m hungry again. Clothing: I am wearing comfortable clothes. They are not only comfortable but make me feel comfortable in all settings. I am wearing white tennis shoes, which are no longer white. Church: The church should be a place of love and unrestricted support, especially for survivors of abuse. The church should be a place that is affirming, a place to be fully yourself, and a place to grow. The church is a place of both giving and receiving. God: God is full of love. God wants nothing but the best for us. God is always with us, even when we can’t feel their presence. Some questions to reflect on this week: Think about a time where you’ve wanted to share your faith, but you were hesitant. Did you end up following through? If not, why? What is the biggest hurtle for you when it comes to sharing your faith? Is it harder to share your faith with people you know or people you don’t know? Why? Peace & Love, Teila Creekmore Subscribe to LUMC Devotions Lenexa United Methodist Church | 9138 Caenen Lake Road, [email protected], Lenexa, KS 66215 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!