Evangelism Can Be Hard:
A man was walking down the beach one day and saw a little boy throwing sand dollars back into the ocean. He stopped and asked the boy, why are you throwing these sand dollars back, there’s thousands of them. It’s not going to matter. The boy replied, it mattered to that one!
Evangelism is a lot like that. There are thousands of people who haven’t heard or choose not to believe. For those of us who do believe, it doesn’t make much sense… why would you pass up on the love of Christ… the one who wants to care for you, and love you for eternity. So, we continue to share the gospel with others in hopes that, that one will choose life.
So, we continue to share our faith and continue to be denied. Don’t get me wrong, we are not denied by everyone, just a lot of them. They are set in their ways, don’t want to be told what to do by someone they can’t even see, or are just stubborn to the point they don’t want you telling them what they should believe. It can be disheartening and hard.
So what do you do? Give up! No, you continue sharing and trust that Jesus has it all under control. Know that iy is a team effort to get someone to change their beliefs. You share (plant the seed), maybe I add to your sharing (water), someone else adds a little more, and then it happens, God steps in and shows himself.
I can look back over my life and see where people have shared their faith and some even had the nerve to ask me to pray. One even knew me well enough to know how stubborn I could be, and he still asked me to pray with him. Go figure. But it must have made an impact because some 47-years later, I still remember him and in fact, can visualize the exact location and setting.
God says, His word will not come back to Him void. When you share His word, He takes it and puts it to work the way He wants it to work. It would be nice to see immediate changes, but the fact is, that’s not the way it works.
I drove a dump truck for a while (that was fun – I got paid to play in the dirt). As I pulled up to this young guy to get a ticket, I could hear his music from his car. I would pass by and get my tickets about 10 to 20 times a day. I realized, some of my Christian music sounded a lot like his non-Christian music.
He loved music, and I couldn’t stop and just talk, so I handed him one of my CD’s and gave him a specific track to listen too. He, in turn, gave me one of his and told me what to listen too. We did this for almost a month when out of the blue, He asked how he could become a Christian! I didn’t care about time at that point. I pulled my truck over and we prayed. It was the most exciting thing I think I had ever seen.
I wasn’t the one who talked to him, the music was. Then God translated what the young man needed to here. When God was done, He handed him back over to me to finalize the transaction and hand Him back to Jesus. This is the shortened version of the story. but my point is, God will get who God wants to get and it’s not always in the way we expect it to happen.
I am a fanatic about not putting God in a box and this was a great demonstration of how God can work when He is set free.
I said all of that to say this… evangelism can be hard. You expect things to go one way when God has another way and can involve more people. Instead of one blessing, there are many. Don’t give up. Just know that God has it under control.
