Don’t Feel Guilty!
I want to reach the world for Christ, what about you? That’s why I like being involved in global Christian organizations and love co-hosting our “A Time to Dream” radio show that blankets the world through shortwave radio. But as much as I effort to reach the multitudes, it can be exhausting at times. It’s also not the way it was always done in the Bible.
Jesus was often a one-on-one guy; he reached out to the woman at the well, he forgave the adulterous woman, he healed one man with leprosy, as well as one paralyzed man. He had his crowd moments, but for the most part, Jesus’ healing ministry was a personal, quiet and unassuming outreach.
In the 24th chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus explained that’s the way God works, even through his “frontline” people like well-known Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha. When Jesus was rejected at his home synagogue in Galilee, he made the point about a prophet not being accepted in his hometown through stories about Elijah and Elisha; however, there was another principle at work.
“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three-and-a-half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon” (Luke 24:25–26).
When speaking about Elisha the prophet, who healed a Syrian leper, he said, “And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 24:27).
Even the prophets didn’t always help the large crowds, or even their hometown folk. Their greatest work recorded in the Bible took the form of one-on-one ministry, oftentimes with strangers.
If you ever think, I could never speak in front of a large group of people about my faith, don’t feel guilty.
Do for one what you would like to do for all.
Reach out to one person, not necessarily in your social circle, who needs some TLC. Invite them to lunch or coffee. Offer a listening ear. Be a conduit for the love of God and be ready to share the reason for the hope you have through Christ Jesus.