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Get Your Own Story

A few weeks back, the congregation Will and I form a part of, Joshua Generation Church’s evening congregation in Edgemead, started a campaign of sorts, encouraging us all to ‘get your own story’. What it is founded on is the fact that we all need to get our own ‘stories’ of God’s power in and through our own lives and not rely on someone else’s experiences or ‘God-experiences’.

I revel in the truth that I don’t need to be anyone special to fulfill the God-given commission given to us all as believers. The commission to ‘seek and save the lost’. Not just willing, but willing and actively ‘seeking’ out opportunities.

Evangelism becomes much easier when you choose to lose your awareness of people’s reactions towards you.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve admittedly not looked very happily upon the increasing grey hairs that have appeared and the deeper wrinkle lines that have crept in more and more every day. However, one thing I’ve loved about getting older is the more natural leaning I have towards ‘keeping the main thing the main thing’ and becoming less aware of what others think of me. Evangelism becomes much easier when you choose to lose your awareness of people’s reactions towards you.

As long as I’ve known Jesus, I’ve had a desire to see others come to know Jesus too. Over the years I’ve shared Jesus with people on a fairly regular basis, but as most of us know, this thing called ‘the Christian life’ can become very distracting and, before I knew it, my days were filled mostly with ‘great Christian activities’ but sadly very little ‘reaching the lost’.

Until a little while ago, when I got to a point where I felt challenged afresh with the reality of just how important a lifestyle of evangelism is! I said to the Lord: ‘Lord, you created me as I am, a pastor’s wife. I spend most of my days with the ‘already saved’ and other leaders, but I know You long to use me more to reach the lost? How can I do it? I don’t think I even have any unsaved friends left…’ God’s response to me was this: ‘It’s true you are where I’ve placed you, but evangelism opportunities are already all around you – you just need to see them. What about the lady who scans your groceries? The postman? The plumber? The beauty therapist? The parking attendants you smile at? What about them, Pam?’ Then it hit me. There was a world of ‘lost people’ right in front of me; I just needed to keep my eyes open to see them and my tongue loose to speak to them.

I’ve started praying, ‘Lord, show me today who you want me to speak to. Don’t let me allow one opportunity to pass me by.’

What has changed for me recently? I’ve become freshly desperate for God to use me to fulfill His great commission and I’ve started really believing He wants to use me every day. I’ve started praying, ‘Lord, show me today who you want me to speak to. Don’t let me allow one opportunity to pass me by.’ Suddenly I’ve found myself seeing opportunities all over the place, and my own ‘open-door tactic’ has been to ask people if I can pray for them – strangers, shop assistants, whoever I come across.

Just this past week (after nearly a year of the ‘ant invasion from hell’), we hired a gentleman to come and spray our property with ‘ant killer’. As I was about to hand over payment at the end of his working time, I paused and asked him, ‘Can I pray for you?’ (with the cash still in my hand, I knew I had his attention for at least a little while longer). He said a quick, ‘Yes, sure’, and I began to pray. I prayed my heart out, I prayed that God would reveal Himself to this man in a powerful way. A few minutes later, when I opened my eyes and looked into his, I saw big tears rolling down his cheeks. He went on to tell me that since the day his daughter had died in a car accident, he hadn’t stepped foot into a church and there I was (a parent who had lost her own son years ago) praying for him. I had the opportunity to tell him about the church we are a part of, the ‘open door’ we had at our own home if ever he wanted to talk to us about the Lord, and I got to plant the seed of God’s hope into his heart.

Every time I step out, speak up, share Jesus, love a stranger, God enthuses, encourages and infills me.

I’ve begun to have new stories every few days of God encounters! Yes, there are still days when I miss it, days when the worries of the world distract me or life just seems too ‘all consuming’, but the days I do keep my eye on the prize – every time I seize an opportunity God sets up for me – I walk away feeling like I’ve had the most powerful vitamin B injection in the world, and the after effects keep getting more powerful. Every time I step out, speak up, share Jesus, love a stranger, God enthuses, encourages and infills me.

So what’s stopping you from having your own story? Go for it, get out there and GET YOUR OWN STORY. 

Pamela, wife to the late William, served with him in ministry from 1980, and then on the Joshua Generation Church eldership team and within Four12 partnering churches from 2010-2021. She is a home bird with the heart of an adventurer, an avid reader, theology degree-holder and health nut.

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