Dear Friends.
God's timing is always perfect.
One always needs to be aware of that when sharing Christ with another person.
I was recently reminded of
that when I walked into a hospital room last week and met an 88-year-old man
who was recovering from surgery. His neighbor, a church member, had been
talking with him about spiritual things, and she asked if I would visit him. I
walked into his room and introduced myself, and as I was getting to know him,
he interrupted me and blurted out, "I need Jesus.” Of course I
was quick to oblige, and I began sharing God's plan of salvation with
him. He listened intently and after a few minutes he invited Jesus into his
life. After receiving Jesus into his life, he said he wanted to do something
that he had never done in 40 years. He told me he wanted to pray, and he
immediately proceeded to pray for one of the most sincere and heartfelt prayers
I have ever heard.
Not everyone comes to
Christ as quickly and so dramatically as my hospital friend. Often witnessing
takes a long time of patient waiting, and sometimes the one witnessing is
tempted to try and hurry up the process by pressuring the hearer to receive Him
before he/she is fully ready to make a genuine commitment. The one hearing the
gospel may feel pressured into making a premature decision, one made with their
lips and not with their heart. When this happens, we wonder why there is no
discernible change in their life. The reason is that they are still born,
spiritually lifeless, without any fruit in their life to show forth a genuine
conversion. In our haste for them to receive Jesus, we may be guilty of
pressuring them to receive Christ before they are really ready, and as a result
we make it harder for the next person who witnesses to them for they now
become gun shy to the process while wondering if they are going to be
pressured again as they did before. Always beware of trying to pick unripen
fruit
One who witnesses must
always be sensitive to the person and to the Holy Spirit’s leading to know the
appropriate time to ask for a commitment.
Witnessing, it has been said, “is simply
sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to
Him.” When we witness, the results are always His and never ours. We may be one
person in a long line of many witnesses who impact the life of the
non-believer, and while it is exciting to personally witness the birthing of a
new soul, we must always be sensitive to the fact that we are not the only
agents in the evangelism process. Conversion always takes place according to
His timetable, not ours, and pressuring someone who is not yet ready can be
detrimental to the evangelism process. It may make a person more hesitant
to the next person's witness.
I confess that I have
sometimes been guilty of trying to hurry the commitment process, and when doing
so I have always regretted my actions. Like many, I need to be continually
reminded of the apostle Paul’s wisdom who writes, “I planted, Apollo’s watered,
but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3: 5-8)
This is not to say that we must always err on the side of caution when witnessing for fear we might turn someone off to the gospel. Every witnessing situation is different, and we must be sensitive to the Spirit's leading, always reminding ourselves that it is He who saves, not us, and that He can do so in many and varied ways.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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