As part of my sanctification and growth in Christ, I am trying to grow as an evangelist. There are believers in Christ who have been given the spiritual gift of evangelism. I am not one of them. I am very weak in evangelism. Evangelizing the lost is the opposite of my introverted personality. Yet the Bible is clear, we are all called to be disciple makers and evangelist. So I have been trying to improve and grow in my evangelism.
A few weeks ago, I wanted to stretch myself a little in being evangelistic, so I said a basic prayer before I left my house. I prayed, "Lord, I want to be a better evangelist today, so will you please bring people in my path, that I can share the Gospel with". It was a simple prayer. It was only one sentence. But I told God that I needed to have people in my life, people in front of me, that I could be evangelistic with. I wanted God to bring people to me, that day, so I could use my words and tell them the Gospel. And here is how the day unfolded....
-As soon as I walked out my door, my next door neighbor (I live in a duplex) was also walking out the door.
-I stopped for gas, becasue my car was empty of fuel and payed the person behind the counter with cash.
-I met a fellow Pastor for breakfast and had a good waitress serving us.
-In the afternoon, I went and visited a shut-in from my church, at their home.
-When I got home, 2 of my neighborhood kids, were in my house, playing with my children.
-There was a huge rain storm, that arrived expectantly, so a college kid walking by my house ran onto my front porch for a few moments.
-Later that night, I took my 2 girls to dance and walked by other parents, dancers, and dance instructors.
-As the night came to a close, I put my 3 girls to bed, talked with my son as we watch a TV show, and went to sleep next to my wife.
Just in that one day, there were dozens of people I interacted with, that I could have shared the Gospel with. And this was a normal day for me. Most of these people I interact with on a weekly, if not daily basis. As I was falling asleep that night (and thinking about ever since) I realized I did not need to pray for God to bring people to me. As I was living my life, I am with people daily I can share the Gospel with. Even now as I write this, there are dozens of college students walking by my house.
Now, yes, I should pray for the people God brings me in contact with. I should pray for soft hearts. I must pray for open ears. I pray that the person responds to God's Word. But I do not need to pray God brings people into my path. That is a natural, normal, human aspect of life. Without even asking God, His will is such (in the way He created us) that we interact daily with many other humans.
Unless we live on a desert island or are a single person living alone who is a hermit, we will interact with at least (on average per stats) 3 people in a given day. That is 3 people that we can share the Gospel with. We do not need to pray for this. What we need to do, is have the courage to share the Gospel when we see these 3 people.
So we do not need to pray to God asking Him to bring people into our lives. We should be praying for the courage to share the Gospel and the heart of the listener to respond. And this is what I have been praying for over the last few weeks. The strength to share the Gospel and the people who are hearing it as I share with them (in daily activities) the good news of Jesus Christ.
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