Yesterday I woke up and checked my Facebook like I do, every single day. I wasn't prepared for what was about to happen. Since this is a public blog everyone can read I will keep it very brief and not mention any names. For the sake of this post I will call him/her, M.
There is a person in my family who I have been praying for years. Sometimes I will get a burden on my heart to pray for M so strong, I start crying. When I think of praying for someone to get saved, I always think of M. I know that's not a mistake. God very obviously has put M on my heart.
In the process of praying for M all these years, I have come to love M in a way I didn't even know was possible. God, through M has shown me what it is like to love someone even when they reject everything you stand for. It hurts to watch M go year to year and still be so hard and seem to hate God so much. It grieves me. I hate it, but I continue to pray.
Through the years I have also watched for a way to witness to M. To show M God's love and to let M know that the things M believes about God are wrong.
Well, yesterday, that changed. M posted something that gave me the opportunity to witness to M.
At first, I didn't see it as an opportunity, I seen red. I will not lie, I was really angry.
But ironically I had a friend on Facebook (a couple of months ago) post the same thing before. I seen it and was so angry and I grieved for them so much. Grieved for the deception that Satan was obviously playing on them, that they couldn't see the truth. I had A LOT of retorts prepared, but in the end they didn't seem to come from a place of love and that really should be our ultimate motivation when sharing the gospel.
So this time when M shared the same thing. I was ready, kinda. Like I said I started angry and once again went through the same retorts as when my other friend posted it. But this time, it was different. I calmed down and the Lord gave me the perfect words and it did end up coming from a place of love. Serious Love. I was able to share the gospel with M. I was shaking, I was nervous, I was scared. But I did it anyways.
After I posted it, we had to leave. When we got back several hours later, I nervously hopped on Facebook to see if M had wrote anything back. M didn't, M deleted the whole post. I don't really know why. But I still have hope for M, since M didn't just delete my comments.
The next time I prayed for M, I didn't just pray for Salvation. I was able to pray that the Lord would use my words (from Him) to somehow plant a seed that will grow into a marvelous, flourishing tree of Truth.
I am sure that some people would say that it didn't seem like love, confronting M about this. I mean sometimes lying seems more loving. But what it seems like and what it is, is vastly different.
For example
If I had just boarded a flight to New York and the person told me they were going to Florida, would it be more loving to just let them go to New York and let them find out on there own?? Of course NOT. You would tell them that apparently they had got on the wrong flight and they still had plenty of time to make it off the plane and get on the right plane.
It's the same way with witnessing. It is NOT LOVE to hide the truth. Love tells the truth.
M probably is not very happy with me right now. M probably is very angry with me. But we have to love people enough to risk that relationship and their approval to tell them the truth of Jesus.
Thank you so much for Visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I hope that somehow God uses this post to give You the Strength, Hope and Courage to share the Gospel.
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