I have heard so many sermons about choosing the right path, leading others to the right path, how to get back on the right path but this week during prayer at a church we were visiting I distinctly heard God ask me another question I had not thought about before.
“Are you willing to walk with someone on their path to Me instead of just showing them the path to Me?”
I have learned a lot about evangelism and have talked with people about my faith and how they can take steps to be closer to God, but I haven’t really been willing to get down in the mud with those who are on the wrong path and walk with them until they find the path to God. I am still processing what God has planned for me in this, but I do know that I have to take another look at what I am willing to do to reach people who are lost.
Paul states it well in I Corinthians 9:19-23
“19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
It is never easy to walk with someone through their struggles, but the reward is so great when I can see the miracle God does in a life. Instead of looking down on the alcoholic, the stripper, the homeless, the unlovely, I want to be able to come along side them, love them and share with them what God can do; THEN take it one step further and walk with them as they discover that. I do not believe God wants me to just be the one willing to tell them (which I need to do), but to be a guide and a friend along the journey, however long that journey is.
I want to be willing to be the “slave” to the weak, the oppressed and the outcasts in our society. Who else will?