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Witnessing
Aim for Repentance Rather Than a
Decision
As you witness, divorce yourself from the thought that you are
merely seeking “decisions for Christ.” What we should be seeking
is repentance within the heart. This is the purpose of the Law,
to bring the knowledge of sin. How can a man repent if he
doesn’t know what sin is? If there is no repentance, there is no
salvation. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you shall all
likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Many don’t understand that the salvation of a soul is not a
resolution to change a way of life, but “repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The modern concept of
success in evangelism is to relate how many people were “saved”
(that is, how many prayed the “sinner’s prayer”). This produces
a “no decisions, no success” mentality. This shouldn’t be,
because Christians who seek decisions in evangelism become
discouraged after a time of witnessing if “no one came to the
Lord.” The Bible tells us that as we sow the good seed of the
gospel, one sows and another reaps. If you faithfully sow the
seed, someone will reap. If you reap, it is because someone has
sown in the past, but it is God who causes the seed to grow. If
His hand is not on the person you are leading in a prayer of
committal, if there is not God-given repentance, then you will
end up with a stillbirth on your hands, and that is nothing to
rejoice about. We should measure our success by how faithfully
we sowed the seed. In that ay, we will avoid becoming
discouraged.
“If you have not repented, you will not see the inside of the
kingdom of God.” Billy Graham
From:
The Evidence Bible
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