You know that friend. The one who cannot finish a conversation without her fiancé showing up in it.

You ask her about her day, she will find a way to bring him in. You ask about work, somehow he shows up. "My fiancé said this." "My fiancé did that." "You won't believe what he did for me." Blah blah blah. She is not doing it on purpose. Nobody gave her a script. Nobody scheduled her to talk about him. She just cannot help it, because the man she loves is not just in her heart, he is in her mouth too. What is full in the heart will always spill into the conversation.

Now let me ask you something. When last did Jesus show up like that in your own conversation?

Not in a sermon. Not because you were preaching or teaching a Bible study. I mean in the ordinary, everyday, unplanned gist. The exam result. The job update. The heartbreak. That small thing that helped you survive a hard week. Did His name come up, or did you leave Him out because you were saving Him for "spiritual" moments?

Jesus was not vague about this. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He did not say if you feel something for me. He did not say if you attend my services every Sunday. He said if you love me, you will do what I have told you to do. And what did He tell us to do? Go into all the world and preach the gospel. That is not a special assignment for pastors and missionaries alone. That is the mandate He gave to everyone who calls Him Lord.

So here is the question underneath that whole gist about your friend and her fiancé. How can we claim to love someone we never talk about? How can we call Him our everything and go a whole week without mentioning Him to a single soul? You cannot claim to love Him, you cannot claim to know Him, and be silent about Him. Love that has nothing to say about the one it loves is not love.

But listen, the Great Commission is not asking you to become somebody you are not. You do not necessarily need a pulpit. You do not need to carry a microphone. You do not need a rehearsed altar call. What you need is what your friend already has without even trying, a heart so full of Him that it spills into the conversation you are already having.

Somebody is talking to you about a hard exam? "Honestly, I would not have survived this semester without Jesus carrying me through it." Somebody is talking about a rough season at work? "I have learned to take that to God first, He has been faithful in ways I still cannot fully explain." Your character, your words, your actions, your deeds, your dressing, even your writings, all of it is preaching whether you open your mouth or not. Your patience preaches. Your integrity preaches. And then your words come and confirm what your life has already been saying.

This is a mandate, and it is a mandate of love. It is not duty first. It is love first, and duty follows naturally, the same way mentioning the one you love follows naturally from loving them.

So examine yourself today. Not with guilt, with honesty. Is Jesus showing up in your everyday conversations, your writing, your dressing, your work, the way He lives in your heart? Or have you been keeping Him only for Sunday, only for crisis, only for "spiritual" people who will not be offended?

The world is not waiting for another sermon. It is waiting for people who love Jesus the way your friend loves her fiancé, helplessly, naturally, unable to keep Him out of the gist. Let Him be that obvious in you. Because as many as truly love Him will talk about Him, not because somebody forced them to, but because they cannot help it.

If you love Him, you will keep His word. And His word to us is simple. Go, and tell them about Me.

© Favour Obaseki