“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

The following is an excerpt from my friend Bill's Prayer Journal. I wonder how many people I walk by on a daily basis that I could have spoken to and prayed with?

I was walking around the pond near my house and noticed a young man sitting on a bench by himself.  As I walked by he looked lost and sad.  It was a half-mile walk around the pond; when I came around for the second time he was still sitting there just staring down at the ground.  When I came by the third time there was a young woman sitting with him and I saw that they had been crying.  After I finished my walk I got into my car to leave.  God said to me, “What are you doing?  You walked by them three times and you never reached out to them.  Go to them and ask if you can pray with them.”

I got out of my car and went over to them and asked if I could sit down and share something with them.  They said “Yes” and so I explained what had happened and that God wanted me to reach out and pray for them.  I asked if there was a need that I could lift up in prayer.

The young woman told me that her boyfriend was going to jail for a crime he had committed.  He was also struggling with the fact that he was a drug addict.  With all that was going on in his life he did not see any hope.  I shared my testimony with him, showing him that there is always hope in Jesus. 

He said he had been raised in a faith other than Christianity and was not ready to ask Jesus to come into his life.  I asked him if we could pray together before I left and he said, “Yes”.  The three of us held hands and asked God to please guide him and protect him and his family during this time of need.

I have since found out that through his girlfriend’s minister that he agreed to enter a Christian rehab facility.  At first he wanted no part of the program and wanted out but finally agreed to stay.  Through the process of learning more about Jesus and how He could give him the hope he needed in his life, he accepted Jesus as his Savior.  It is important to know that he gained Jesus as his Savior but lost his mom and dad.  They were very upset that he had gone against their traditional faith and wanted nothing to do with him.

Through the years I have lost contact with him but I pray daily for him and for his family.  He is now in God’s Hands.