Does loving the Lord with all of your heart mean you should automatically be an exceptional evangelizer? For several people on my squad, this equation is true. They walk up to perfect strangers and tell them about the Lord and it is awesome to watch His love pour out through their words. Then there is me: an introvert. Even though I have an advantage over many of my squad-mates this month in that I can speak Spanish and converse well with the people of Guatemala, my hesitation to approach perfect strangers and just start talking to them about God has been a personal struggle for me.
A recent experience in the hospital helped awaken me to the hope of a solution. Myself and two squadmates were given the opportunity to walk around the hospital, spend time loving on two abandoned babies, and talk with other patients and their families. Holding the babies was no problem at all for me: Macario and Rosario have already pressed upon my heart a deep affection. But when it came time to enter the rooms of other patients, I was clearly hesitant. What if they thought we were interrupting their family time? What if they wanted us to mind our own business? What if they just plain didn’t want strange Americans intruding on their space when they or a loved one was trying to recover from an illness or surgery? I despise the thought of being a burden on anyone, and so my instincts told me every way us entering those rooms to talk to these people would be burdensome to them, rather than the blessing that the Lord intends it to be.
After being prayed over by a teammate today for boldness, the Lord revealed some things to me while I was spending some quiet time with Him. He began with a few verses that came to mind:
“Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” –Matthew 10:19
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”. -1 Peter 3:15
So what must I (and all of us whose personalities make us hesitant in terms of evangelizing to strangers) do to be a better witness of Christ?: Trust in the Lord with all of my heart that He will provide me with words to speak, and prepare myself to speak the words He has already given me through His Word, the bible.
After this revelation, I dove into the Word, and the first verse I came across was John 10:10:
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
What is a full life? And how will I convey that message to the people I interact with at the hospital that I long to share God’s truth with? The Lord continued showing me through His Words what an abundant life is:
- Rather than earthly riches, an abundant life celebrates heavenly riches: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus” –Ephesians 2:6-7
- An abundant life no longer suffers from past hardships: “By His wounds we are healed”-Isaiah 53:5
- An abundant life is full of peace: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” –John 16:33
- An abundant life celebrates family, children, and innocence: “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” –Psalm 8:2
- An abundant life is provided for by the Lord, and it brings us joy: “Put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” -1 Timothy 6:11
These are just some of the aspects of an abundant life-the ones that I first came across during my study today. I plan to add more to my next blog soon. I hope to memorize these verses, or at least the idea behind them, and be able to share that with the patients and families I speak with in the hospital. Perhaps they may think it strange for a random American girl to start up a conversation with them about God, but I pray their hearts will be stirred when I allow myself to be used by the Spirit to explain what this abundant life looks like, and who the man is who died for us all so that we can share in it.
