And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)

I will be the first one to tell you that I don’t have the gift of evangelism. When God called me into full-time ministry, I remember feeling anxious because I knew this was something I was not comfortable doing. I remember feeling like I had to force myself out of my head and just do it. I thought that if I studied enough and found the perfect method, maybe then I would be able to gift myself with such an ability. I could not have been more wrong. I studied hard, tried methods perfectly, and always seemed to fail. I was missing two very key things.

First of all, God has to be in the equation. I have to allow him to use me in order to bring people to Christ. He is the one who saves, not me. Second, not everyone is given the specific gift of evangelism. It strikes me then when I read that this community was being added to in number daily. Mostly because it points immediately to the fact that this was the Lord’s work and not the work of the people. The writer of Acts wasn’t describing methods of evangelism here. I can imagine them being used, but it was not the focus. People devoted themselves to God and God worked through them to bring others into his presence.

Give God the opportunity to work through you.

Callie Kemmerer is an alumnus of Kingswood University and currently serving at Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church in Pennsylvania. She leads the hospitality ministry and loves to see Jesus work through that ministry.

© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.