It’s simply amazing how God can work. He truly will answer your prayers. The story I am about to tell is just a glimpse into one of the many experiences I’ve already had that testify to that belief. On the second day of outreach, after going door-to-door and asking people if we could pray for them, my spirits were somewhat down, even though our outreach had been considerably better than the first day. I was feeling defeated because of the rejection we received by some unopened doors as well as others simply saying they didn’t have time to talk to us, and was wondering what I was doing wrong. Was I not saying the right things? Was I not allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through me because of my nervousness? So I decided to take the time to pray about it, and lay my struggles down at the feet of Jesus.
After I prayed for God to give me the grace to die to myself, so that I may be a greater witness of His love, He almost immediately presented me with an opportunity as I walked home from the church to find two homeless men sitting at the bottom of our steps. At first I must admit, this did not occur to me to be such an opportunity. I walked right past them and was a little uneasy being by myself because the situation could have potentially been dangerous. As soon as I was inside, I made sure to lock the door behind me. I sat down to have a bowl of cereal, and as I thought more about the homeless men that I had just blatantly ignored, the more obvious it became that this was an opportunity given to me by God for me to put myself out of my comfort zone and talk to them.
So I did. After approaching them, they seemed rather harmless, quite friendly, and pleasantly surprised that I was willing to sit down and talk to them. I’m sure that these men are used to people not giving them the time of day, passing them off as the lepers of society. However, after engaging in conversation, one of them said to me, “I’ve missed a meal before because I didn't know what time it was.” After some explanation, I found out that depending on the day, he walks to different places that are serving free meals all across the city to get his food. One day, however, he knew it would take him about a half hour or more to get where he needed to go and he accidentally misjudged his time in order to get there. The more he told me the more I realized that this way of life is his life every day, and at that moment my heart broke for him, I was so close to tears, yet he continued to share his stories like nothing was wrong. I can’t imagine living that life, how blessed we are to have what we have. So as he continued to tell me other things that have happened to him recently, un-phased by the harsh reality of it all, I handed him my watch and told him he needed it more than me.
This man truly humbled me in a powerful way, because the things we consider necessities are luxuries in the lives of others. I remember shopping with my mom one day before I left and saying specifically, “Mom I NEED a watch.” Little did I know that God had another plan for it. Now whether or not my action of God’s love truly made an impact on that man to turn his life and follow Christ, I may never know, but one thing is for sure, he truly made a profound impact on me. If God can answer my prayers to open myself up in that way to people, I believe he can work in this man’s heart through my one action. Through this experience I realized that we are here not only to serve, but to love, and to give completely all that we have for the love of God.
In the words of Peter Herbeck, “evangelism is one beggar helping another beggar find the feast, and we are all getting ready for the banquet.”
In His Love,
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