Want to know God?

Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscumbia

One of the biggest barriers to evangelism today can simply be a failure to ask. I can remember my own salvation experience as a young boy. God’s Spirit was calling me. He was at work in my life. Yet I had great fear about accepting Christ. My fear came for different reasons, such as being very bashful. There was no way I would ask anyone about being saved or walk an aisle, etc. I also had a fear of water and understood that baptism came shortly after salvation. So as a small child I stood and held tightly to the pew in front of me, wishing desperately that I could accept Jesus, but living in fear about doing so.

I also remember well the day I did accept Jesus. My mother read the Bible to me one night, as was our custom, and when she read verses about believing in Jesus Christ, I thought, “If I could only do that.” That night when she finished reading, she looked at me and said, “Have you ever thought about giving your life to Jesus Christ?” I had surely been thinking about it and was holding back because of fear. That night, I said yes to Jesus and He saved me.

Fast forward in my own life to a time when God was convicting me to be more involved in evangelism. He had placed a little girl on my heart and I knew I needed to ask her if she was ready to accept Jesus. But I put it off. Once again, I let fear control my actions. 

Then one day not long after, I was driving down the road when a baseball rolled out in front of my car. Without thinking, a little girl darted out in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and the girl looked up at me in fear. It was the same shy little girl God had put on my heart. I drove on but God began to convict me greatly that I needed to ask that little girl if she was ready to accept Jesus. The next time I saw her, I did ask. Guess what? She accepted Jesus that day. Sometimes all we need to do is ask.