Giving Directions

I was walking to my car downtown and was stopped by a lady in her car who asked me how to get to N. Franklin St. She was on S. Franklin St and only needed to cross over E. Washington Ave to get to her destination. I informed her of that small piece of information and then we both headed on our way. Later I started to think about that, how even though she was less than 2 blocks from her destination, she was completely lost. Without someone to offer her guidance, she might have continued to wander around and possibly give up trying to find her destination. It took me less than 2 minutes to give her the information she needed. She was very grateful and I felt good about helping a stranger.

I then wondered why is it so difficult to share directions that point toward the Cross? You are surrounded by people who often need direction in their life and probably ask you and anyone else that will listen. The people I interact with throughout my day share about how they don’t know what to do in this situation or that situation. They sometimes even ask for my advice or opinion. I usually try to give them the best advice I can come up with, short of pointing them to Jesus. Why? It is so easy to give directions to a location or help a stranger on the street, but difficult to give Godly directions to the people I am in relationship with.

During this last Tuesday night Mad City Church prayer meeting, there were some prayers that appealed to the Lord to help whittle away the fear of man that causes us to pause when we are faced with sharing or displaying the Truth among unbelievers. We carry this fear of what others may think of us and it causes us to hold back sharing the Truth. We all have it to various degrees, but in those moments where that fear rises up, we must submit our fear to the Lord and he will give us the courage to speak. Paul specifically asked for help in this area in Ephesians 6: 19-20. He asked for people to pray that he would be given the words to speak and to speak them fearlessly.

I am not saying that we need to beat the people around us with the Truth, because it is kindness that leads people to repentance, rather that we should use the trust and friendship we have earned with our co-workers and those who we are in relationship. If you have worked at the same place for a number of years, you most likely have developed a friendship or co-worker relationship. We most likely already have the avenue to speak Truth when the opportunity arises. We must just trust that the Lord will give us the words to speak during those moments of opportunity. We must be willing to offer directions that point to the Cross, because we know how to get there, we have traveled down that road. I believe we are not in relationship with the people around us by chance, God is orchestrating divine appointments for us each day, let’s keep an open, willing, submitted heart posture before the Lord so we can see them.

Here is the challenge, that we would pray the prayer that Paul asked for and that we would pray this prayer for each other. We are the ambassadors of Christ and I know we desire to speak the Truth of Jesus Christ fearlessly; we just need to seek it. Let’s stand together in this.

Strength and Honor