So, for years I was that person who was scared to death to audibly, full out share the Gospel with anyone. I would think the cliché thoughts like “well I will just live really well before them or love them really well with Christ’s love and that’s like verbally sharing with them, and just as good right?, so I think it works.” When I would let a perfect opportunity go right by me, I would try to comfort myself with the fact that at least I showed them Christ’s love with my actions. But the truth was, I was a coward. I was letting my fear of people, or what they might think or say or any other fear stand in the way of TRULY loving them enough to see past their flesh and think about their spirit and the state of it. People who do that and do it well, they are the ones that really show Christ’s love and heart to those around them.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing people who live a righteous life before unbelievers at all…that’s what we’re called to do. And I’m not bashing you if you’re at least thinking about the Gospel and how it effects others and trying to love them well by your life but are too afraid to speak out to them. Like I said at the beginning, that was me for many, many years. I get it, I really do. There is no judgment here. I love that you are on the journey. But my point is that living a holy, Christian life before people is not the only thing we are called to do. My youth pastor explains it this way and it really helped it click in my head. The Gospel is like an airplane. You have to have both sides of the wings in order to fly. You have to have the life that matches up with what you are proclaiming and saying you believe, and you have to actually open up your mouth and verbally share the Good News to those that God places before you. The airplane won’t fly otherwise, it will crash and burn unless it has two wings. I don’t know if that makes sense to you like it did to me when I first heard it, but for me, it was like a light bulb went off. I could get behind that, it made sense. And it woke me up from fear.
Now fear of sharing the Gospel doesn’t go away in an instant. I prayed for years that God would give me a heart for the lost and would put opportunities and people in my life where I would not be fearful but would share the love that I have been given from Christ. The cool thing is though…He did! He did give me a passion for making Him known to those who don’t know Him or who are far from Him. And He gave me times when I am not afraid to share and other times when I am still fearful but I push through it anyway. I love it when He answers prayers like that! My church does a fantastic job of training you and giving you chances to practice and know how to effectively speak out about what God has done. That training is invaluable. It helped give me the courage to push past my fear and truly see the person and feel like I could carry on a rational conversation with someone about Christ. Now, if your church doesn’t have something like that, don’t despair or use that as another excuse. There are plenty of sources on line that can help you with the same thing. If you need advice on what these are or how to find them, feel free to message me. I do want to point out that I’m not talking about cramming the Gospel down anyone’s throat. There is a right time and a right place and way to do it, but when they are all in place, it’s your job to step up.
So, that being said, for several years now it has been a passion of mine to draw people to Christ both with my words and my actions. My heart’s desire is to glorify Him in both of those.
So, if you read the subject line to this blog you may be wondering what this has to do with prayer. Well, actually this whole process has a ton to do with prayer but I’m not going to get into all of that right now cause that’s not what this story is about. After hearing my backstory and history of being fearful to share the Gospel and then becoming passionate about it, you will now understand my frustration and disappointment at feeling like this past year on the Race I haven’t gotten to share with as many people as I would have thought I would have and wanted to. When I look back as a blanket whole, my mind goes blank and I feel like I haven’t shared with anyone, but I know that isn’t true. There have been several instances when I have gotten to share Christ, especially to groups of people. I think I forget about those times because they look differently than what I was expecting. I was expecting more one on one stuff.
For awhile, I honestly was feeling kind of bad and beating myself up about the lack of spreading the Gospel I had been apart in this year. But then, God started showing me something. Two main somethings, actually. First, that I am not alone in this. I am part of a team. We each have to do our part, but we all work as one unit. Last month in Thailand I was really hoping for a chance to get to share with the kids and teenagers that were at our English Camp for three days. I was praying for it. But, one of my team-mates, Tiffany, ended up getting to share with every single one of the students about the Gospel because it fit with the station she was running and God gave her the go ahead and she listened. I was so excited when she told me that she was able to do that. It was an answer to my prayer, they all heard the Gospel, some of them for the very first time. I just wasn’t the one to present it to them. But I had a part in it by praying for the chance to get to and for praying for our students to be receptive. I’m not alone in this. I’m part of a team that each does its part when God calls us to.
The second thing that He showed me, I’ve kind of already alluded to. I have prayed for more people this past year in traveling than I can possibly count. All of the time, when I’m passing someone on the street or in a tuk tuk, plane, train, boat or car…I’m praying for them. God points out certain people to me that get my attention and I pray. I pray for their salvation. I pray that they will begin to see the truth and turn away and be set free from lies that they have been told all of their lives. I pray for healing. I pray for peace, joy, hope and love to overwhelm them and draw them to Christ. I pray that their hearts will be softened and they will know Him, for who He really is.
I was sort of taking this prayer for granted. I pray for those around me back home too…big deal. But God began to show me that in the countries I have been living in these past months, I may be and mostly am, the very first person in their life to specifically pray for whoever I’m passing by. It is very likely that in a culture that is completely taken over by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam or any other religion depending on the place, that no other Christian has been around them or seen them to even pray for their salvation. The likelihood of me being the first to intercede for their soul is quite high. And the likelihood of them ever getting prayed for again, humanly speaking, is very low to none. That is a HUGE privilege to get to be apart of. It’s a huge part of the Kingdom that I have gotten to participate and carry my portion of. That fills me with so much joy! Who knows what God will do with my prayers for those people. Who knows if they will be in another situation where someone who knows Christ prays for them and maybe gets to verbally share Christ with them. I do know this though, nothing we do for God or His Kingdom ever goes to waste. I believe that some of the people that I got to pray for in passing will come to know Him personally, and while I probably wont be the one to lead them, I got to be apart of it. Because, once again, we’re a team. The children of God are a team. It’s time for us to see that and set aside all of the things that try to separate us and disunity us and step up and be the body of Christ, each doing its part at its given time to do it and then maybe rotating.
So yea. That is what God has been showing me the past several weeks about His Kingdom. Do I still wish I could have verbally shared with more people? Yes. But do I know that God used me in His distinct way to spread the Kingdom? Yes. Nothing we do for Him goes to waste. It’s time to step out of ourselves and our world and truly see the world around us and do our part at bringing Christ into it. What’s stopping us? Will you join me?
