Divine Appointment: God’s presence is with us

In my previous conversation at the corner McDonald’s where I spent two hours discussing faith, the gospel, and the need for Jesus, my conversation partner brought up

Mathew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

She talked about her attempts trying to walk the straight and narrow, but that it was difficult and full of problems.

God has prepared the way

In God’s sovereignty, we talked at a moment where the circumstances of life were overpowering and she’s looking for God’s comfort.

It’s hard to communicate in words the emotional context of her struggle.

A tired, single mother, working 2 if not 3 jobs, having the cost of living go up substantially, and struggling to keep her little family afloat and raise her infant child in these circumstances.

All of us have moments when we think the world is crashing.  Sometimes those are passing moments, and we get back up on our feet and plow ahead.  Sometimes, we take these anxieties before the Lord and ask him for His peace and move forward.

Other times, those moments are not passing and we remain in a state of anxiety, a restless mind that keeps us awake at night and peace is hard to find.  Though we might even have faith in Christ, the body remains restless.

We talked in a divinely appointed moment where the circumstances of life were crowding in.

Asking Questions

Many of the questions I asked felt inspired in the moment.

They weren’t scripted, they weren’t part of my morning devotions.  Rather, they were prompted as a result of the kairos moment we were having on the 2nd floor in the corner McDonalds.

This is God’s working, and being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

“Why is the narrow road better?” I asked.

“It just is what I’ve been taught, I don’t know why.  Because it leads to eternal life?”

“Eternal life is for mañana.  What difference do you think that makes right now?”

“I don’t know.”

God’s presence

She’s right, it does lead to eternal life.

But something I believe God showed me at the moment was that walking along the narrow way with Jesus is just that — he is with us.

The narrow way is better NOW because God is with us.

We can face the challenges of today with God’s presence.  No matter what the world throws at us, nor our circumstances, the narrow way is better because we can know and experience God’s presence.

One of the most amazing promises of the bible is this: “Lo, I will be with you until the end of the age.”

My testimony = My experience with God.

We discussed this promise at length.

She invited me to tell stories of how I know this to be true.

My testimony wasn’t about how I came to know the Lord, but rather I came to know this verse to be true.  How I came to know that the narrow way is better because I can experience God’s presence.

I was the credible witness, a living example of someone who can experience God’s comfort in the midst of struggle.

The more I shared about knowing God’s presence, the deeper the conversation went.

The more evident the spiritual thirst became.  I could see God drawing this person to Himself.

The final question for this conversation

After spending the two hours talking about all sorts of things, this question rose to the surface.  In the relational context we had established, this question was normal, and non-threatening.

“What keeps you from following Jesus today?” I asked.

“Fear.”

“Fear of what? Can you tell me?”

I won’t go into some of the answers as that’s part of the private conversation.  Clearly, my conversation partner wants some more time to think, consider, wrestle, examine, pick your own verb.  She’s counting the cost.

There will be more conversations in the future.  But for now, there is a huge step forward in her journey to Christ.

Let me ask you this?

Would you join me in prayer for this person?

For more information on my thoughts on spiritual thirst, click some of the related links below.

Talk #2 in the Fear Free evangelism Study Course is all about spiritual thirst and the role it plays in drawing people to start following Jesus.

Image Credit: Hands of Fear, photo credit: 刘金喜 via cc