Usually, when I hand someone a tract, I also give them an invitation card for my church so this fits in quite easily with my routine (if you call only been doing this for a few months now a routine).
Today, as I was leaving the self checkout at the grocery store, with tract and invitation in hand, I stopped to ask the nice lady who had been talking with my son at the counter if she had a "Church home". That was my first mistake as she looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Oops...church lingo...I quickly readjusted my words and asked, "Do you attend a church anywhere?" Her face quickly took the defense and through pursed lips she spouted, "I'm not interested." I replied, "Okay, thank you. Have a nice day." I also asked the lady next to her and she replied, "Yes" and then quickly gave me the name of the church. I suppose this was to reassure me not to press any further.
I left with my son and began to speak to the Lord on her behalf. "Father" I asked, "what must have happened to her in her life to make her 'not interested' in you? Lord, I'm so glad that you are interested in her and that now I have a reason to pray on her behalf." I am sharing this not to brag or pat myself on the back for being courageous enough to invite someone to church. After all, what kind of courage is that, really? Nothing compared to what many of my brothers and sisters are doing around the world and in cities across this country. However, I did want to give my Lord thanks for so quickly showing me that every opportunity to invite someone to Jesus yields a positive result. You see, even if they reject your message or your invitation, they can't reject your prayers. And we know that since He is unwilling that any should perish, and since He promises to hear and answer our prayers when they are prayed according to His will, then I can have hope and confidence for this woman. I can pray diligently that the Lord will continue to send people to her, and I can have hope that one day she will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, become interested.
She is not unlike all of us once were. For God's Word says,
"All of us like sheep have gone astray,Each of us has turned to his own way;But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." Isaiah 53:6
Let's be faithful to continue to pray for those who are "not interested" in Him because we all know that He is most definitely interested in them.
By the way. I know I started this blog with the promise to share about prayer and I still plan to, however, the Lord is still teaching me many new things, and I don't want to get the cart before the horse. So from time to time I will post my experiences as I try to become a more bold witness for the Lord, and when I feel He has some more for me to share concerning the process of prayer, I promise to bring it forth. In the meantime, Keep asking, seeking, and knocking for those who are lost. Remember they don't even know that the boat is going down until we tell them. Fish, my brothers and sisters, fish! If the net comes up empty, cast it on the other side. Keep fishing because the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are FEW!!
God bless you!
