Day 14 - Where And When Do I Evangelize?
Like many of our most common questions about evangelism, it’s much easier to provide answers than it is to apply them to our lives. Let's look at what may help us express these concepts in our everyday lives.
When digesting the words of Jesus as he gives the Great Commission, we recognize that Jesus didn’t lay out a framework for “when”, but He did say “go into ALL the world”. This is a clear indication that evangelism should be integrated into our every move.
If we really evaluate Jesus’ actions, we see His “when” happening in all kinds of moments. On His way in the day time, the night time, while with crowds, and alongside the individuals, even when He was tired and hungry.
The longer I follow Jesus, the more I realize that He is simply waiting on me to destroy the box I’ve put Him in so He can my life to touch the world around me. I remember one night, as we were eating at a local restaurant catching up with friends, the waitress came to serve us at our table. I caught her attention to ask: “We are going to pray for our meal before we eat. Can we pray for you for anything? God transformed my life, and I believe in the power of prayer.” She responded with a prayer request for her family, shocked that we had paused our time with friends to care for her in this way. Right there in the middle of a packed restaurant, as we prayed for the Lord to have His way in her family, she dropped to her knees, sobbing before the Lord. It didn’t matter to her that she was seen by everyone. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known the Lord before this moment, because she was having an encounter with the God of the universe - at peak dinner hour no less.
Her moment with the King of Glory will forever be burned into my memory. She met Jesus that night. Imagine if I had given into the thoughts in my head that she was too busy, she would hate me for asking her, or convinced myself that it wasn’t the place for it. The Holy Spirit can handle their hearts properly, it’s simply up to us to surrender to Him in obedience, because eternal life and eternal death hang in the balance, waiting on our “yes” to Jesus.
We have the privilege of believing in the Lord, taking Him at His word. Looking at the book of Acts we read about ones who had decided that Jesus was worth their existence- their very lives were His. In Hebrews 11, we see a chapter citing those who held faith in the Lord in the most extreme of circumstances. Verses 38-40 pierce my heart, they read- “the world was not worthy of them. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
Challenge: We are the continuation of the stories from the pages of His Word. Take time to imagine partnering with the Holy Spirit to watch the impossible be accomplished through our surrendered lives. Make today the day you begin to yield each moment to His “when and where”.