Chris and I were finishing up a short meeting with a time of prayer. Although we weren’t meeting about evangelistic efforts, my prayers included a prayer that that God would provide each of us an opportunity to share the gospel with someone by the end of the week, that we couldn’t miss. Then I headed off to lunch.
When I got back from lunch, Chris immediately came into my office. He said, “You’ll never believe what happened. While you were at lunch, I heard someone knocking on the doors of the church building. The guy got aggressive and was trying to rip open one of the locked doors.”
Chris continued, “When I opened the door, the guy asked if he could come in and have someone pray with him.” Chris, of course, said that he could. Chris ended up sitting with the guy, listening to his story, and getting to share the gospel with him. Apparently, the man was driving down to a rehab facility and just happened to stop by for prayer! I wish I could say that the man gave his life to the Lord right then, but he didn’t. But certainly heard how to give his life to the Lord and was invited to do so.
That would have been a fun story to tell, even without the specific prayer. But with the specific prayer and God’s almost immediate response, it caused Jesus to be real in our hearts and our day in a way he wouldn’t have without it.
But what about me? Did I ever get an opportunity to share the gospel? Well, two days later, when my family and I were eating breakfast at a hotel before going to a University of Tennessee game, I did. We were watching the reading of the names of the 9/11 victims while we hurriedly ate the free Holiday Inn breakfast. And one of the ladies, an elderly lady, who was informing us that “breakfast is shutting down,” told us that she used to work at the Twin Towers decades ago. That conversation led to her move to L.A. and then the middle of nowhere Tennessee, where she had been living for a while.
As she lingered unusually long at our table, thankfully, God helped me realize what he was doing in that moment and helped me move the conversation to the gospel. She didn’t know the gospel, but she does now. She didn’t give her life to Christ when I invited her to, but I’m praying she has by now.
It’s so easy to try to do all of the things Jesus wants his followers to do, like evangelism, without simply asking him to help us do them. But remember, God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. He can make things happen so effortlessly and splendidly. I hope this story encourages you to pray specifically to the God who is present, willing, and able to help you today.
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