Where does faith come from?
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him… - Philippians 1:29
Evangelist Bill Fay shares a story of running into singer John Denver at an airport one day. He walked over and introduced himself, and told him he had a message for him. You see, several years before, Fay had led Denver’s father, Dutch, to the Lord. And Dutch made Fay promise he would share Jesus with his son, John.
So Fay took John line by line through the Gospel – and Denver understood every verse. Yet he accepted none of it. He wanted nothing to do with the faith of his father. So Fay asked him, “John, when did you make up your mind Jesus Christ would never become your Lord and your Savior?”
Denver could remember the time and place. He said a Sunday School teacher told him that Jesus Christ was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And he just didn’t believe it.
It seems interesting that God would go to all that trouble to get the Gospel to John Denver only to have him never accept it (that we know of). But the Bible is filled with stories of people who’ve done the same. The nation of Israel, for example, had Jesus in their very midst. Yet most of them rejected Him as the Messiah.
Don’t get frustrated when it feels like you’re getting nowhere sharing the Gospel with the lost. As today’s verse tells us, belief in Christ is something that’s granted to people – we can’t manufacture it. Trust in the Lord to work in His way and in His timing in the lives of the lost!
Prayer Challenge:
Pray and ask God to give you patience in His timing as you share Jesus with the lost people in your life.
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