Session 18

Are you giving up too soon?

From Chasing Purpose: A 27-Day Devotional

Jesus tells us to go and preach the good news to all creation. All creation. As in everyone, even those we assume won’t be receptive.

Have you ever done that? Written off someone as unreachable? Maybe it was the aggressive atheist next door or the coworker who likes to rant about how religious people are ignorant and naive.

When someone so adamantly disagrees with what you believe, it’s hard to imagine that person wanting to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So we stay quiet. We don’t invite them to church or speak much about God because we know they consider it foolishness.

But what if that neighbor or coworker is exactly the person God has you in that house or that job to reach?

In Galatians, Paul reminds his friends that he persecuted Christians before coming to know Jesus. Paul, also known as Saul, sought to put an end to the Jesus movement by having Christians stoned to death (Acts 7:54-60). Who could be more unreachable than Paul?

But when Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, Paul began preaching the truth he had denied. Paul’s story is a perfect reminder that no one is beyond God’s reach.

We’re quick to give up when we don’t see movement in someone’s life. After a few months of praying and reaching out, we assume all is lost. But the Bible tells us nothing is impossible with God.

Those relationships we think can never be restored. Those friends we think will never come to know the Lord. Those situations may seem impossible to us, but they are not impossible to Him.

Reflect:

• Who is God asking you to invest in and share your faith with today?
  
• Is there anyone you’ve written off or assumed doesn’t care about Jesus? Ask God to give you the courage to speak up and share what He’s done in your life.