Easy Chair Meditations
I was substitute teaching an adult Bible class for my friend Ted Dexter at the Hamburg Methodist Church. It was longer ago than I care to remember but the incident was brought to mind Sunday morning as I was driving to church. I had turned on the car radio just in time to hear a choir singing “We’ve a story to tell to the nations”. During that class, I mentioned telling our story to unbelievers.
After class, a woman approached me and said, “Evangelism is just like tithing, everyone knows they should be doing it yet nobody is and we all feel guilty when someone brings the subject up.” “Why don’t you share your story with someone close to you?” I asked her.
“My story?” I don’t have anything that would be of interest to anyone.” Was her reply. How sad, this woman’s self-assessment was, and how wrong her assessment of what God had done in her life. We all have a story to tell so what hinders us? Well perhaps there are some painful memories, or some past sin that we’ve confessed but can’t seem to get over. Perhaps we are consumed by fear of the future and so busy concentrating on what might or might not happen tomorrow that we cannot see the ministry need standing right in front of them now. Then too they may be so occupied with non-essentials that they do not have the time to spend with others.
Somewhere in my distant past, I read this wise saying: “Go slow to succeed, hurry up to fail.” Oh how those words apply to evangelism. Evangelism, probably more than any other ministry, takes time and it has to be God’s time. We must be operating at God’s pace to see and share meaningful stories of the Kingdom. It is only when the Holy Spirit has had the necessary time to prepare the soil of a person’s heart that we can plant the seed and see it grow. Until then it is our responsibility to build a friendship and rapport with that individual biding our time till the soil is ready.
Is this some new approach to evangelism you might ask? Heavens no. Look to your Bible, it is replete with examples of individuals with stories to tell. Let me sight a few for your consideration. There was Saul, the Jew, who persecuted Christians until he met Jesus who dramatically changed his life; or Peter, we know his story don’t we, the cowardly act of denying that he even knew Jesus after the arrest and crucifixion, telling outright lies “I never knew Him”. No doubt after that, Peter thought he had to story to tell. Wrong, according to Jesus, read about it in John Chapter 21. Or Thomas, who acquired the nickname “doubter”. Because of his doubts, Thomas probably thought “I have no story to tell.” Wrong, who better to share a story of doubting than a doubter with a doubter? It has been said that God created each one of us in our own unique way so that we might minister to those whose character closely resembles our own.
Or the woman at the well, knew her story well. She had been everyone’s playmate and everyone knew it. No doubt she thought, “Tell my story? Who in Heavens name would ever believe me?” Yet the writer of John tells us this woman’s former story would not be remembered long, but her new story would never be forgotten. What an encouragement to us. Read it yourself in John Chapter 4. Moses did not have a story to tell after he killed the Egyptian and he wandered the desert for years in hiding until God said to him, “I have seen the misery of my people and have heard their cries and have come down to rescue them” (Ex. 3: 7-8) The part Moses missed was in what he didn’t hear God say, “I have come down to rescue them, through you, Moses.” There are so many more stories in the Bible, Rahab, The Bride in Song of Solomon and many others.
I’ve said all that to say this: Everyone has a story to tell of how God has worked in their lives. What we need to do is to slow down, take time to think and reflect on how God has worked in our life then get to work on sorting out those hindrances that are holding us back, then go to prayer and unload those things to God and be rid of them. Once that load has been disposed of, it is only a short matter of time when we will begin to see how God will work in and through us in our daily living.
Of course you have a story to tell, everyone does. How can I be so sure? Good question, easy answer. Jesus said, “Go ye” when He gave us the Great Commission (check it out again, Matthew 28:18). Further He has equipped each one of us for the task. I suspect what is holding you back is the fear of starting! If so, ask God for help and then let the Holy Spirit guide you.
Pastor George