Rejection in Our Witness for Christ

Our love for our fellow man and the Bible’s command to “go” both demand that we endeavor to be a consistent witness for Christ. We are to tell others about the sacrifice Jesus made for our salvation and share our first-hand knowledge of His goodness. But recently, I had an experience that was a little discouraging. In fact, I was just praying about it when another Christian named Stacey caught me on Facebook messenger and shared her own frustrations. She said, “Everyone…family members, acquaintances, total strangers…everyone I share the Gospel with doesn’t want anything to do with God. It’s so pointless!!” It was a confirmation for me, so I doubled down on my prayers. I believe that God has shown me something important about how we are to encourage ourselves in the Lord in these last days.

A Witness for Christ

From very early in my walk, the Lord has impressed upon me the importance of being a witness for Christ wherever I go. In fact, He wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. For me, speaking to strangers about Jesus isn’t easy, but tracts have really helped me step out there. Plus, they are something tangible that people can look at later and think about more. I use lots of different ones, but one of my favorites comes from Tract Planet. It has “Are You Ready” on the front, and when I hand it out, I usually say something like, “Jesus is coming soon. We gotta get ready.” I give them to sales staff, people next to me in line, homeless people, and others as I feel led.

A Recent Experience

Recently, I had an experience that got me praying. It started when the color copier was broken at my local Office Depot. I looked up the second nearest one to my house and made my way. As I drove, I thought about a prayer that I pray a lot. I pray to be “at the right place at the right time” for the Lord to use me. Maybe He had an appointment for me to speak to someone or be a light for Christ. I was hopeful as I pulled into the parking lot.

When I got to the counter, I met a friendly copy lady there. I told her about the other store’s broken copier. She laughed and mentioned the ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Then she recited a little poem that I later learned is popular on TikTok. “Roses are red, bit coin is a token. I’m sorry, sir, but the ice cream machine is broken.” She laughed at her own joke. A minute or so later, she said the little rhyme again, smiling to herself.

I felt compassion for her. Something in me wanted to reach out to her. So, as I left, I handed her a tract. I told her we had to get ready for Jesus’ soon return. She gave me a tight smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and told me to have a good day. Then she took the card from my hand and put it immediately under the counter (presumably in a trash bin) without even looking at it. 

Just Not Interested

She wasn’t rude or hurtful. She didn’t curse at me or even give me a dirty look. The lady just wasn’t interested. In fact, a lot of people I talk to aren’t. Most are polite like this lady was, but some refuse to take the card or give me the eye roll. Sometimes, like Sister Stacey said, it can start to feel pointless. Why do I bother spending money on tracts? Why do I put myself out there when nobody wants to buy what I’m selling?

Even members of my own family all have knowledge of the gospel and yet have no interest whatsoever in it. Last year I went through the whole gospel presentation with someone I love. The person knew all the right answers but didn’t care at all about the implications of them. That’s when the Lord gave me the blog In Evangelism, Pray for Holy Spirit Fire. The message was that even though someone might not be ready today, we should keep praying for the Holy Spirit to draw the person to Jesus at a future time.

My Prayer

Anyway, with all this rejection, I asked the Lord for encouragement. I said that I know what the Bible says, but I need something “beyond the duh.” I needed a way to look at the situation that will keep me pressing forward in my witness for Christ despite the feelings of futility that so often accompany it.

After all, we KNOW that the Bible says that wide is the way that leads to destruction, and many will go in by it. Narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. As a numbers game, it makes sense that we will talk to more people who won’t be interested in Jesus than those who will. We also KNOW that the Bible tells us to go anyway. To tell people anyway. We KNOW these things intellectually, but how can we keep ourselves encouraged in the face of so much rejection? 

Then I thought of the verse that has come to my mind so often lately: Psalm 127:1. Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain to build it. We, as God’s hands and feet, must labor to bring others to the Lord. We must be about His business and work while it’s day. But, like the Lord has already shown me in the above blog, unless the Spirit of the Lord is drawing people and showing them their need for Him, the natural man will remain at enmity with God. We can tell people and we can pray. That’s what we can do.

If that’s all there was, my other blog would have covered it. But one more experience gave me a massive jolt of hope that has been an absolute game changer for me.

One More Encounter That Changed Everything

For about five years now, the Lord has had me bringing “snacks with tracts” to a few locations on Sunday morning before church. It’s a ministry called “Taste of Church” since I bring snacks that people can taste along with a little message, or taste, of church (the message of Jesus). I take them to the men who wait for day jobs in my town, a convenience store, and a laundromat, all on my way to church.

On St. Patrick’s Day, I took some green key lime cupcakes with a message about how St. Patrick brought the Gospel to Ireland so many years ago. The message was that the Gospel still saves today. The story was fresh on my mind because the Lord had just given it to me for the subject of my blog entitled In Honor of St. Patrick’s Day: St. Patrick’s Breastplate. It’s about St. Patrick’s life and the prayer he wrote for protection in travel.

As I entered the convenience store, I headed over to the little restaurant built into it. The new family that just bought the space was behind that counter preparing for the lunch rush. I handed them the cupcakes, and something made me say, “Do you know about St. Patrick?” 

I then proceeded to tell them the little story about him that I had just learned for my other blog. The lady was so excited. She said that she had just done a DNA test and found she was part Irish, so she was looking into her Irish heritage. As I left, I heard the lady say, “Guys. That was SO WEIRD!” There was surprise and delight in her voice, and it mirrored my own. Then I thought of Isaiah 55:8-9, “God’s ways are not my ways. His ways are higher than mine.”

Our Hope as a Witness for Christ

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

Who but God could set up that chain of events? He gave me the blog about St. Patrick for one ministry and put me in the perfect position to talk to a lady about it in the next. (And the whole experience gave me the answer I was searching for to share with you here!) I saw the intentionality of it all, the different layers of events in time that had to come together, and I realized the complexity of the plans that God has for His people. It just so happened that the lady shared her excitement with me this time, but how many other people are connecting dots in their heads that they don’t ever mention?

Suddenly, I had great hope. Even if nothing lines up for people today, that doesn’t mean that God can’t bring it back to their minds later. Maybe at some point in the future, the copy lady will look at our world that is getting crazier by the day and say, “That woman said Jesus was coming soon. Maybe she was onto something after all.”

God Is Building His House

No matter how many people we talk to or how articulate we are while doing it, we can’t “save” anybody. We are the laborers, but God must build the house. We must continue our prayers that God will use us to bring others to Him, and we must persevere in our witness for Christ even in the face of rejection. The beautiful truth is that though it may look like nothing is happening in the moment, we can have great hope that God is working behind the scenes doing things only He can do in ways we can’t even imagine. In the meantime, our efforts are not in vain. God is using everything we go through for our good and His glory. One day we will see as we are seen, and it will all be worth it.

If you need more encouragement, try, I Am That I Am Is Everything We Need. Or, try Instead of Fear, Choose Faith in God’s Promises.  Please sign up to receive my blog in your email. Also, check out my YouTube Channel where I read the blogs out loud. I also have a playlist of hymns from my church.