Are YOU Ready ?

Hi, it’s Reen. On several Sundays during the lockdown, I observed an older man on the outskirts of our outdoors “socially distanced” church service. He seemed as skittish as a deer tentatively entering a field from the safety of the woods. I prayed for a chance to connect with him and approached him to welcome him. We had a brief conversation and then I boldly asked if I could buy him lunch so I could get to know him. He responded positively, and we arranged to meet at the local Arby’s.

Over a two-and-a-half-hour lunch I asked him about himself, and he readily shared his story. He’d been running from God since the Vietnam war, when he did something which he felt God could never forgive. Through prayer during that meeting God put words in my mouth that were just what he needed to sooth his aching heart. At the end of our time, I asked him if he would like to finally find the peace he had been unable to find. He accepted Christ right there in Arby’s. When I saw him the next Sunday, the smile on his face and glow of peace in his eyes showed he had truly found peace with God.

This simply came about from my desire to get to know him and trust that God would provide the open doors and words to share. People are starving to know that someone cares about them…and may be more open to your approach than you realize. The beauty of this process is that you don’t have to know all the verses and addresses, just the story of how God changed your life. Memorizing a few key verses is helpful… so pick several and memorize them, put a card with them in your wallet, or look up an app on your phone you can read aloud during your conversation.

Here are two gospel resources that can help you. Moments with the Book (www.mwtb.com) has numerous gospel tracts (mini-gospel presentations) that you can hand out, leave at restaurants, or insert when paying your bills (I love using the postage paid return envelopes in the junk mail to send tracts to whoever opens mail in corporate mailrooms.) You can also go to www.printmytract.com and have your own custom message printed on tracts to hand out.

So, faithful friends, let us all pray for more boldness to rescue the walking wounded on the spiritual battlefield. Through the power of prayer, an open heart, and preparation, we can all bring spiritual first aid to a lost world.