Today as we were cleaning up from serving lunch to the young men, a guy walked up to me and said with sincerity, "I just found out that your apartment was broken into a while ago. I wanted to say that I'm really sorry that happened." I was very surprised that these words were even coming out of his mouth. This young man has consistently disrespected me for several years, but today I looked at him and saw this deep regret in his eyes about the break in. Wow! Thank you God!
I let him know that I'm doing better now. But, I was honest with him and said that it effected me and really made me feel betrayed. I went on to say that I have forgiven whoever did it and I'm praying that God will bring restoration to them.
We talked about what has been going on in his life and he told me that he's getting ready to go into a halfway house. We asked if we could pray for him about anything and he said that he just wants God to help him get on the right path with his life. I asked him if he had ever invited Jesus into his heart. He responded with, "I just got baptized on June 8th." I wanted to make sure that he knew the difference between salvation and water baptism. After talking through it, he said, "I do believe I am saved, but there are some things I keep messing up in." I let him know that the three of us standing there with him have the same problem. :) When we all told him that we mess up too, I believe it gave him some hope and brought relief. We encouraged him and said, "When you mess up, the best thing to do is repent and keep moving forward with God. And when you look back a year form you WILL see that you are in a different place."
We prayed for him, his future and his family. He was truly genuine and listened intently. As we prayed for him, people were shooting off fireworks around us, but in the midst of that God's Presence was there.
No comments:
Post a Comment