"Help, I messed up while sharing the Gospel

Over the time that I have been a Christian, I have to be honest and say that there have been a few occasions where I missed the chance to share the Gospel, or I have made mistakes and not done as well as I thought I should have. There are reasons for this of course. On occasion, I was probably tired, not alert or perhaps even a little fearful of rejection. In the early days I probably thought that I didn’t know enough about scripture. These reasons are certainly not uncommon for any Christians that I know.

It is at times like this that people can get into the “Should have” guilt trip. They will start to say to themselves, “I should have done this”, or “I should have said that”. Yes it’s important that we learn from when we do make mistakes, but at the same time we should not give ourselves a hard time about it. Accept the fact that you could have done better and ask God to help you in the future. We are not all like the great evangelists who seem to be able to lead anyone to Christ. They will tell you that they missed opportunities themselves in the past. None of us are perfect.

There are couple of very relevant points that we shouldn’t forget. I believe they relate to what Paul said in Corinthians when it comes to a fear of being rejected or of not knowing enough scripture:

“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words….” 1 Corinthians 1: 1-4

Firstly I will quote a well known saying from sport, “We will all drop the ball sometimes”. We can’t all be absolutely perfect all of the time, and what’s important to remember is that God doesn’t expect us to be that way either.

Some years ago, I used to have a young man that worked for me as a sales person. Previous to that he was a professional cricket player with one of the top teams in the country. He had to stop playing due to an injury at a young age. His team was full of top international cricketers, two of which were acknowledged as the best in the world at that time. I remember him telling me what would happen if he dropped a catch during a game. The two top players would give him such a hard time that he didn’t even want to go into the changing rooms as he knew that they would be on to him and not let him forget it.

I am so grateful that God isn’t like that with us. When we make a mistake and ask Him for forgiveness, He not only forgives us but He also forgets. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”. Psalm 103: 12 What a great loving, merciful and forgiving God we have.

Paul said that he didn’t come with “eloquence or human wisdom” when he shared the Gospel with people. That is certainly good news for me to hear as I wouldn’t describe myself using either of those words. Secondly, he said “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words” Wow, he is probably even more like you me than I thought he was. That’s a great comfort to know.

God does something that is amazing with us imperfect beings. He knows that we will mess up from time to time, yet He never gives up on us. That’s right, never. Yet knowing all of that, He chooses to entrust us with the most important message ever. The amazing life changing story of His only begotten Son. It’s incredible when you think about it.

As an evangelist I have been used to preach the Gospel and see people come to Christ. It is always a humbling experience for me. I often ask myself “Why would the Lord want to use me”?  Because He knows the real me, he knows my every thought and action yet he still uses me. Normal thinking doesn’t work that way does it? His word says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”. 1 Corinthians 1: 27

Reading that scripture and others like it, really is a great encouragement to me. It should be the same for you as well, because we will all get things wrong from time to time. We will feel disappointed or even guilty when we mess up, but we have a forgiving God who loves us and wants to help us to grow.

The second point is that prayer is the vital remedy here with regards to minimising the occasional dropped ball. Being prayed up will strengthen you and keep you spiritually alert. The saying that we have probably all heard before, “Seven days without prayer makes one weak”, may well be a cliché, but it is a true statement in reality.

We must be prayed up, asking God to direct our paths, to send people to us that are ready to hear the Gospel. I have said many times before “If we ask Him, He will send them”.

Keep prayed up and the opportunities will come along. Some will not go as you hoped. But the more you do something with the right intentions, the better you will become at it.