I admit that sometimes when I look at the Heart of the Father and I see that His heart is for me, I am filled with such peace and rest and joy, yet fail to go on further to see that His same heart of perfect love is for others as well. Even the others whom I disagree with, others who might frustrate me, others whose core values differ greatly from mine, yes, those “others” are dearly loved by the Father as well.
I am grateful God did not wait for me to get my act together or have my values line up with His before started loving me. He didn’t wait for me to agree with Him on everything before He sent Jesus to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice to redeem me. He just simultaneously saw the worst in me and the best in me and chose me in Christ.
Last year while my wife and I were at a restaurant with our son and his friend, I overheard our waitress talking to a couple at another table near us about some pain she was in (if I remember correctly, it was from an accident) I eventually asked her about the pain and if I could pray for her.
Eventually, she told me that she was a single mom and her little girl had just told her the other day out of nowhere, “Mom, I wanna go to church.” She shared with me she didn’t feel like it was a coincidence that I was at her workplace sharing with her right after her daughter “randomly” said how she wanted her to take her to church.
The point is, you never know what’s going on that you can’t see in someone’s life, both the bad and painful. You also never know when God is working behind the scenes, preparing them for encountering the life of Christ through us.
I landed in a city a year ago and was getting my rental car at the airport. When I got to the counter, the young man in his twenties asked me what my plans were while in his city. I told him I’d be speaking at a church there. He then began to open up his heart and share with me how he had recently broken up with his girlfriend and had been thinking a lot about God. I had the opportunity to share with him the love of Christ and he allowed me to pray with him. It was so easy and he was so open. It was another reminder to me that you never know what’s going on with the people right in front of you and how God is preparing them.
Finally, last spring, I had the privilege to minister in Cuba with a GMA team. It was an amazing honor and we saw God’s Spirit touch many people, including many coming forward for the call to salvation in Christ.
When I got to the airport in Havana, I had to wait in line for quite a while by myself with no wifi connection. I finally decided to strike up a conversation with the person in front of me rather than continue with all of us standing there bored and in silence. She began to share with me that she was back in Cuba visiting family and shared all the tragedies happening in her family. Then we started talking about God being a loving Father. She was crying, so I asked if I could give her a hug. Next thing I knew, she was in my arms weeping and I felt like I was back in the conference at the church releasing the love of the Father.
I shared with her the love of Christ and got her number and connected her with a church in Miami where she lives so they could follow up and help her grow in her relationship with Christ. It was all a bit stunning. Afterwards, I wondered how many times God has put people right in front of me to share Him with but I was too distracted to notice. I am still growing and learning not to be too distracted to notice the precious ones God places in front of me.
I am repenting for being self-absorbed in my own little world rather than seeing who the Father sees and how He sees them. I may not “feel” like I am an evangelist, but I am a child of God who by Grace through faith in Christ has come into union with our resurrected Savior. What is greater and even more important than my feelings is the fact that Jesus, the greatest Evangelist ever, now lives inside me during my most un-anointed, boring, or distracted moments.
Maybe I’m not technically an evangelist, but I am a son of my Father and His heart for the harvest is huge! His heart is daily yearning for the lost to come home to Papa through faith in Christ.
May God’s grace be upon us as we cooperate with and overflow with His divine love and grace for the broken humanity that God wants to restore in Christ!
I originally wrote this post for Leif Hetland’s website. You can visit his site by clicking here.