Are You Building Walls or Bridges?
This entry was posted on Friday, August 24. 2007 and is filed under Devotions.
August, 2007
ARE YOU BUILDING WALLS OR BRIDGES?
LESSONS FROM JESUS
ON SHARING OUR FAITH
Some of the best lessons I've ever learned on evangelism are those that I've observed from Jesus Himself. As believers, we have the privilege of sharing the love of Christ and the hope of salvation with those around us. However, in our zeal to share what the Lord has done for us we often wind up repelling others, rather than drawing them to the Lord. We can gain a lot of practical insight on how to share our faith effectively with others by noticing how Jesus interacted with one Samaritan woman who He met one day by a well (John 4).
The following is a short excerpt from a book I wrote entitled, Patient Evangelism: Reaching the Multitudes One at a Time. I pray that this personal lesson the Lord taught me will help you to begin building bridges instead of walls when sharing your faith.
In Him,
Lloyd Pulley
Senior Pastor
When I first became a Christian, I was so zealous – I wanted everybody to know the Lord! Unfortunately, though, I was a little too pushy. Instead of drawing my loved ones to Jesus, I was actually having the opposite effect. I had become obnoxious, and because of all my preaching and nagging, even my own sister didn't want anything to do with me for about four years. I simply did not understand what real ministry was all about. I was so unlike Jesus!
In John 4, we see how the Lord genuinely loved the Samaritan woman whom He had just met at the well, and it was because of His sincere show of love that she was drawn to Him and into the Kingdom. He showed His love for her by accepting her for who she was and respecting her as a valuable human being. I, on the other hand, had not shown that kind of love towards my own sister. I did not accept her for who she was. I did not show any genuine concern for her life. I was only interested in changing her, and that turned her off towards the gospel and me.
When I finally reached a place in my walk with the Lord where I realized how badly I had behaved towards my sister, I wrote her a letter. In it, I told her how much I missed her and how I wanted my kids to know their aunt. I didn't mention anything spiritual or reference any Scripture. I just brought her up-to-date on our lives and asked about hers. I wanted her to know that I cared about her – because I really did. A week later, I got a response. She said my letter had moved her to tears. I realized from what she wrote that she had always wanted to be a part of our lives, but was very hurt because she felt more like a "project" than a sister to me.
What severed our relationship was a lack of genuine love on my part. In my zeal, I had built a wall instead of a bridge. God taught me patience through this experience, and He showed me the consequences of the mistake that I had made by trying to hurry along the process and pick unripe fruit in my sister's life.
Patience is indeed a hard lesson to learn, but if God is in it for the long run, we need to be also. Maybe you realize that you too have tried to pick some unripe fruit in the lives of those closest to you. Maybe it is your spouse, your friend, or a co-worker. Learn to be patient and love them right where they are today. Come down from your soapbox and become a bridge-builder. You never know. Perhaps by doing this, they may actually want to know more about your life, which in turn, may lead to an opportunity for you to share your faith with them.
The time Jesus spent patiently speaking to this woman produced a harvest beyond what anyone could have possibly imagined – this one transformed life was used to reach an entire city for the gospel. Oh, that the Lord would slow us down to follow His loving example, when sharing our faith with others.
