Devotional Blog - Tuesday, January 31st

Daily Devotional for Tuesday, January 31

Peter, Reluctant Soul-Winner

“It was late in the evening when a call came from the street just outside the gate. Because opening that gate to someone who wasn’t known could be a dangerous thing, especially at that time of night, the young man left the inquirer outside and immediately sent a messenger to call, saying someone was asking for me there. His name was unfamiliar but what he gave as a token of confidence, was a well-worn Bible that I recognized as having been given him some years before. Inside was a note I’d written to the stranger with a date from 1999. Immediately, it was recalled that we rode a jeepney together in Mindanao’s interior. And I smiled and we let the stranger inside.”—Memoirs of a Missionary, Glen Knight

It seems that sometimes we’re unsure of what to do in our Christian witness. Perhaps we fear being rejected, scorned or mocked. Or maybe we just doubt our ability to relate the faith experience in a reasonable manner and think it wouldn’t do any good anyway. And so, we remain silent even when God gives us the greatest of opportunities. I had an old friend so many years ago, Glynard Gailey in Pine Bluff, Arkansas who was a soul-winner. He often humbly relived conversations with people who turned their hearts to The Lord for salvation, saying they were, “gimmies.” His humorous reference was to the prayer he prayed before setting out to reach people: “Lord, gimmie someone to talk to about Jesus.” Reluctance of our witness is likely because we just don’t know what to say. Usually, however, it’s as simple as telling what The Lord has done in our own lives!