JUST SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW
Denise Linton
Today’s Scripture: “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4, NLT
Theme: God wants to reach everyone with His love, so share what you have.
PROTECTING MY INVITE
Invitations mean a great deal in our society, whether you are young or old. There is something about being invited, even to a small activity, that makes you feel special and accepted. Sometimes it is hard to share an invitation. Maybe that’s because we want to keep the special feeling to ourselves, or because it’s awkward, or maybe we see adding someone else as an interruption or intrusion.
SHARING MY INVITATION
Andrew was one of the first to meet Jesus and follow Him. He received a special invitation, and he could have easily gotten caught up in the excitement and not thought about anyone else. But Andrew went to his brother Simon and invited him to come meet Jesus and share in this special relationship. Simon was later renamed “Peter” by Jesus and became one of Jesus’ best friends. Peter also became a cornerstone to the new church. What would have happened if Andrew had kept the invitation to himself, and not interrupted his time with Jesus to go and invite his brother?
I HAVE PLANS
I had been invited to lunch with some special friends. This invitation was a big deal to me because our times together had been few and far between lately. As I was trying to leave my job to meet my friends, a 20-year-old man was asking directions on how to get to the Charlotte airport via the side roads, because he was walking and hitch-hiking. I was very annoyed, as there was no easy way to explain the route and he was interrupting my invitation to lunch. I told him I didn’t have time to explain right then, and I walked right out of my store to leave.
COME TO LUNCH
But I clearly heard God tell me to go back in and invite the young man to lunch. I wasn’t super excited to hear God tell me this because, if I am being honest, I really didn’t want to share my invitation. But I did as God told me and I explained to the young man, named Walden, that if he would like to go to the lunch with my friends and me, I would then take the time to figure out how to get him to the Charlotte airport.
During our lunch conversation, it quickly became evident that Walden was not a believer and was running away from something in his life. After lunch, as promised, I told Walden that I would drive him to the airport. Before leaving, one of my friends asked Walden if he could give him a Bible. My friend explained that the only Bible he had with him was his first Bible, with many special notes written in it. During the 45-minute drive to the airport, Walden held the Bible as if it was the most precious gift he had ever been given. Skimming through the pages and reading some of the notes written in the margins, he commented several times, “Why would that guy give me his first Bible?” He began to ask questions on where to start reading and how to understand the Bible. He told me he was excited to learn more about God.
IT WAS WORTH THE INCONVENIENCE
I dropped Walden off at the airport and will probably never see him again in this lifetime. But the way God was pursuing him and working on his heart gives me comfort that I will see Walden in eternity. I am grateful that God pushed me to share my invitation, because that was one of the best conversations I had had in a long time.
Make It Personal: What invitations can you share with others? Is God trying to interrupt your invitations so that He can use you to reach others?
Pray: Dear God, You created everything I can perceive, and yet You care about even the details of my life and lunch plans. Thanks for inviting me into a relationship with You. Unlike me, You never hesitate to share an invitation or invite me along. Thanks for being the example and for reminding me to be more inclusive. Help me as I do that this week. Please show me the opportunities You have for me and help me to respond graciously to reach Your children with Your love. In Your Name I pray. Amen.
Read: John 1:35-42, 9:1-25
Weekly Memory Verse: “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Romans 10:13-14, ESV