“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Cor. 1: 3-4…………………
I was headed down the hotel hallway on a mission. I’m always on a mission. Always going somewhere to do something. I don’t sit still well. Rest is not something I do well. Slowing down I do out of obedience to God and because I so exhaust myself in my everyday life I get to the point when I have to. So suffice it to say I wasn’t just going down the hallway to return to my room to do nothing. I had something to do. Between the way the Lord is growing my little ministry by leaps and bounds, and caring for the sweet disabled and senior doggies in my care, I am ever trying to catch up. But right in the midst of my mission to get to where I was going, to do what I planned to do, I stopped. Without hesitation. It was so automatic I could not possibly have orchestrated my stopping now and what took place next on my own. Clearly it was the Spirit of God – leading me as He is ever doing to do what He desires and to whom He desires as He entrusts and equips me to live out my life’s purpose to help people to find and forever follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Within just a minute or two I found myself kneeling down on the ground beside a complete stranger – an elderly woman who sat just outside her hotel room door in a wheelchair not going anywhere but just sitting there. And as I knelt beside her, I held her tender hand in my own and poured out Christ’s love to her, prayed for her, gave her my little Gospel tract, and before I left hugged her and to the best of my recollection told her I loved her.
I don’t remember her name, I will probably never hear from her though she has my contact information, and I will probably never see her again at least on this side of heaven, but I held her hand.
Yes, I held her hand. The hand of a stranger. A stranger who within about two minutes of conversation told me that her adult daughter had been in a car wreck and that that very day, maybe even that very hour or so, family and doctors would be deciding whether or not to “pull the plug” on her to enable her to die. She had already lost another adult daughter tragically. Now she would more than likely lose another one. And I held her hand.
I lived such a self-centered life for decades I hardly would have known if someone was in need. Even if I had known, I would more than likely not have done anything, not much anyway. And even if I had reached out to someone, I would have reached out without the most important thing in the universe to give anyone. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel message, and encouragement and hope in the context of sharing the Bible with people. All led by the Spirit of God. Right down to holding the hand of a stranger and ministering to her on my knees in a hotel hallway.
Friend, we live in a world in which people desperately need to know the truth about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they need to be introduced to Him, they need help surrendering their lives to Him, and following Him, they need help with the Bible, they need their hearts comforted and their hands held, they need their ears filled with kind words and most importantly God’s Word, they need physical help, they need mercy and forgiveness, they need to be pointed to Christ and to receive support in learning how to have a forever relationship with Jesus, oh, how great are the needs of humanity!
The Lord knew what that dear woman needed in those few minutes He blessed me with leading me to her. And He knows the needs of every human on this earth. And He needs vessels, and laborers, children of His, to do everything from proclaiming the Gospel message to teaching the Bible to fixing someone a meal to holding someone’s hand all in the name of Christ Jesus for the glory of God almighty. But what a self-centered world we live in, don’t we? Made up of people like myself who for so very long couldn’t see past her own self, comfort, pleasures, and such. He has saved me and changed me and now uses me right down to something as simple as holding someone’s hand who needs to know His love tangibly. And He has given me a heart and ears and eyes to discern when someone is in need, and He has given me the willingness to lay aside my own little plans so I can be wholly available for Him and others.
Please open your heart, and ears, and eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ, to a world in need, and please let the Lord’s plan for your life, right down to this very moment, be the plan you live by as you learn day by day to live for Christ and to reach out your heart and hands and mouth to a world in desperate need of the Lord, the truth of the Gospel message and the Bible, and His unfathomable love!