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A point that is easy to forget when you witness to people is that you’re doing just as much for the Lord and being just as successful when you’re witnessing to people who maynot receive the witness in the end, and are not going to accept the Lord, as you are when you’re witnessing to those who decide to pray with you. The ones who don’t receive the witness in the end need the witness just as much as the ones who are going to decide for Him.
Often the majority of people you talk to are not going to pray with you to receive the Lord. So you shouldn’t feel that you’re wasting your time and not accomplishing much because your witness didn’t result in immediate decisions. Granted, after praying and struggling to witness to people, when you finally find a person who receives the Lord, it’s wonderful when a soul is saved! All the angels in heaven rejoice when a soul is saved, and Jesus said, “Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.”1 But the truth is, even if your whole day is spent witnessing to people who don’t take that step to receive Him, your time was well spent. We accomplish just as much when we witness to those who don’t receive the Lord as when we witness to those who do.
Those who don’t receive the Lord have to have the witness just as much as those who do, because they have to be able to make the choice. I know we have often said, “Avoid the devoid” and “Don’t cast your pearls before swine,”2 and that’s true. If people don’t want to hear the message, don’t want to listen to you, then there’s not much you can do.
However, there are many people who will listen politely and ask you questions and get your answers. Maybe they’ll do a little friendly debating with you or arguing, and then in the end say they’re not prepared to receive the Lord at that time. But you will have planted seeds that may yet take root in the future. So it’s important that we give them the message.
Of course, when you first start sharing your faith with someone, you don’t know if they’re going to accept your witness or not, so you just have to be faithful to witness. But to reflect back on it afterward and say, “I didn’t accomplish anything because the people I talked to didn’t end up praying to receive the Lord” would not be the right conclusion. You did what the Lord wanted you to do: you shared the message with people.
Our job is to witness and share the good news! Disciples of Jesus are called to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”3 We know that not “every creature” is going to receive the Lord. So if we measure how we are fulfilling the Great Commission by how many people pray with us to receive the Lord, then we’re missing the point of the Great Commission.
It’s also important to remember that many people who don’t receive Jesus with you on the spot will receive Him later—you’ve just planted some seeds. You can’t always expect to plant the seed and have the plant grow up to full bloom right then and there while you’re talking to them. If the seed hasn’t been planted before, it may need some time to be watered, to grow, and then to be harvested. Maybe in some cases the seed has already been planted, and when you come along, you water it, but it’s still not quite ready yet. So who knows? It may be a while, but they may yet receive the Lord.
Gauging the worth of a witness
Do you sometimes in your heart question, “Is the witness I am able to give really making a difference in people’s lives? I’m hardly doing anything for Jesus. I’m occupied with my job and my family. I barely get a chance to tune in to anybody or anything else.”
What would be enough to make you feel you are doing enough for Jesus? What is your criterion? Is it to save a soul every day, or give a Bible study once a week? What if you could only do a few small things each week or month? Maybe you got a chance to tell someone how you depend on Jesus and prayer to strengthen you. Or maybe you were able to give someone Jesus’ comfort or help them to feel happier and more confident.
What if you feel like you did all you were able to do, but you don’t feel that it was nearly enough? How much would you have to do in order to know that it was enough? Would feeding Jesus be enough? Would finding Him shivering with cold and giving Him a blanket be enough? How about going to visit Him if He were in prison? Would encouraging His aching heart or taking care of Him when He was sick satisfy your heart and mind that what you are doing is pleasing Him?
Mother Teresa expressed it like this: “Christ said, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food.’ He was hungry not only for bread but for the understanding love of being loved, of being known, of being someone to someone. He was naked not only of clothing but of human dignity and of respect, through the injustice that is done to the poor, who are looked down upon simply because they are poor. He was dispossessed not only of a house made of bricks but because of the dispossession of those who are locked up, of those who are unwanted and unloved, of those who walk through the world with no one to care for them. Jesus, in the least of His brethren, is not only hungry for a piece of bread, but hungry for love, to be known, to be taken into account.”
Jesus Himself said: “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited Me in. I needed clothes and you clothed Me. I was sick and you looked after Me. I was in prison and you came to visit Me. … Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”4
How can we judge what is important and what will yield eternal results? We want to give our time to a worthy cause, something that is going to succeed and have exceptional and visible results. Trouble is, we won’t know until we’ve put in the time—and sometimes we won’t even know then. It’s not always so easy, this life of faith.
We often may make small investments and yet reap huge dividends. But we never know the extent of those dividends in advance, do we? We so often look at the likely outcomes and figure it won’t be worth much. It’s hard to believe that little old you, laboring alone, or with your little family, could possibly be accomplishing things that are truly great and important to God.
What you do matters to God. What matters to God impacts everything, because He designed it all. God has created this huge universe, but He designed it so that its very existence is dependent on the minute particles, each doing what they were ordained to do. How much more is the immensity of His love activated through even your seemingly insignificant actions and words! If one atom can start a nuclear reaction to bring a world of devastation, imagine what small words and deeds done in His love can trigger for good in the lives of others, now and on through eternity.
Compiled from the writings of Maria Fontaine. Adapted and republished February 2016. Read by Carol Andrews.
1 Luke 15:7.
2 Matthew 7:6.
3 Mark 16:15.
4 Matthew 25:34–36 NIV, 25:40 KJV.
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