Have you ever done something that later on you regret doing? Or maybe you regret not stepping up and doing something in your life? You tend to wrestle with thoughts of your mistakes or decisions you’ve done. I’ve been there. Whether you did or didn’t do whatever it was, living with regrets was/is never God’s intentions for your life. He loves you way too much to watch you live in defeat.
Choose to walk in obedience and live in freedom from regrets.
Start new with walking in obedience to what God calls you to do.
That’s something I had to learn the hard way and still am learning to do but this month, the Lord has taught me to step out in obedience more and more. I’ve learned that when you follow God and His leading even if it seems crazy, you won’t regret it.
This month our team has been working with the Bulawayo Baptist Church in Zimbabwe. We’ve worked with the youth, young adults, kids and much more in the church and other partnering ministries correlated with the church. A specific ministry outreach that we do weekly is evangelism in the craft and vegetable market.
This past Thursday we walked down the streets of the vegetable market praying and talking with the people in the market. Whether they were working their business of selling vegetables or on the streets, we chatted with them and invited them to a Bible study. The Bible study happens weekly at the market.
I wasn’t expecting this though, God did miracles in the streets..
Nigel, a man in the church that is in charge of leading teams in the market stated that our team should all start off evangelizing together. It all was going well praying and talking with people until I noticed a little old man, hunched over and sitting on a milk crate, leaning up against a wall.
I was prompted by the Lord to go over and talk to him. Although I didn’t want to leave my team, I had to. Literally, I felt God say “GO,” in my spirit. I told my team then started walking towards the man.
When I started talking to him we had small talk about family and life and then I asked him if he knew Jesus. He said he did but never knew what a personal relationship with Jesus was. We walked through scripture and as I shared the gospel his eyes lit up. He was shocked to believe that someone would die on the cross for his sins and give him new life forever. He was eager to learn more and by the end of the conversation, he accepted Christ into his heart.
During the time that I was talking to the man, there was a woman in a pink polka-dotted dress who walked past and smiled at me. She almost stopped to hear what I was saying to the man, but she hesitated and continued walking.
After talking to the man, I heard the Lord say “GO,” again. “Go and find that girl in the pink polka-dotted dress.” Lord I can’t go too far away from my team, I thought. But again, I just kept hearing God said “Go and share the good news.”
So I went and found the lady and started chatting about why I was in Africa and talked about Jesus. She said she was in a hurry but wanted to know more and would come by later for the Bible study. Right after that AGAIN the Lord said to “GO.”
Okay God, where? was my response.
I felt led to go speak to a man that was sitting on a box up against a wall reading the newspaper. So I went over to talk to him. I explained to him about why I was there and what my team and I were doing. Instantly, when I started talking about Jesus he stated he was a Muslim. He said his mother was a Christian but his father was not. Together, we talked about the Islamic faith and I asked him if he believed the Bible was truth, he said he did. We then started to study the scriptures and I was amazed, scripture and Jesus came to life to him. The man continued to ask more about Jesus and wanted to accept him as his Lord and Savior.
Then, I met up with Nigel and we started walking to meet up with the rest of the team and get ready for the Bible study but then God said “GO.” There, sitting on a bunch of cardboard banana boxes was a man who looked eager to talk based off of his huge smile he expressed. So we went over him and struck up a conversation.
I asked him if he knew Jesus and he said “No, but I want to know, can you tell me more?” Nigel and I walked through scripture with him and he was very interested. Then out of the blue he said his ride was here to pick him up, but he wanted to meet with us again.
Nigel and I then started walking over to the big acadia tree to begin the Bible study. As soon as we were just about to start the bible study, a lady walked passed me, smiled and then looked away…then she looked back. I greeted her and then asked if she wanted to join us for Bible study.
She asked me what I was talking about, and I invited her to sit down and share the old wooden bench I was sitting on. She came over and sat down and I explained to her what we were about to do. I asked her if she knew who Jesus was and she responded with a “No who is he, can you tell me?” As we talked through scripture and shared the gospel she stated she wanted to know this Jesus and have a personal relationship with him. Within five minutes she was smiling and eagerly accepted the Lord in her heart. Afterwards she said “I knew Jesus called me over here to talk to you for help, now I know HIM.”
All of these stories remind me of Acts chapter 16. In Acts 16 there is a woman named Lydia who had her heart and ears open to hearing and receiving the Lord. In the same way God can do amazing things to open hearts to come to Him, but the call of us is to “GO.” Choosing to live without regrets and going after what we believe the Lord has called us to.
Where is God telling you to go?
Be challenged to be bold, take a step of faith, and go after it.
Remember, you don’t have to know everything to share something.
And choose to live a life of freedom, walking by faith rather than regrets.
“The spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in YOU!” Romans 8:11
