From the Pray! Magazine Archives ~ Prayer & Evangelism

[Reimagine Curator]

Using Prayer as a Witnessing Tool

• Published in the May | June 2000 issue
• Written by Carol Cool 
• Email Article

 

So often, when friends in our faith community tell us of a personal need, we respond by saying, "I'll pray for you." Are we as quick to use that response in the marketplace? What would happen if we did just that in our daily lives at work and in our neighborhoods? What if we said, "I'll pray for you," and really prayed and then followed up with a concerned question about how it's going? Based on what I've seen, it would give us more and better opportunities to share the gospel with others. >>>

[Jenni Biegler]

Great reminder!  I was on a mission trip one year with YWAM and one of the outreaches that we did was to simply set up a Prayer Station in the middle of a busy public square in San Francisco.  Our only purpose was to serve others through prayer and it interesting to see how people responded.  Some walk past us without even making eye contact, suspicious of what we were doing.  Some poured out their hearts about a crisis that they were going through.  Others told us of upcoming surgeries and the fear that they had going into them.  There were tears, hugs, and words of gratitude--simply because we cared enough to listen to them and to pray for their needs.  Sometimes we make Evangelism into a frightening task, thinking that we have to find a way to "make someone believe" rather than drawing people in with love and kindness.