Christian, Plant Seeds Whatever The Result

It can be discouraging when we witness to those who don’t know the Lord, can’t it? Some believers consistently share their faith, invite people to church, and serve others while rarely seeing anyone come to faith. We might wonder what we’re doing wrong and feel like giving up, but we can’t let our witness turn into a results-driven activity. Plant seeds. Trust God to do what He will with them.

Saving Souls Vs. Planting Seeds

Soul Winning

Some Christian circles put a heavy emphasis on “soul winning.” For the uninitiated, that term may sound a wee bit odd. Simply put, it means leading someone to salvation. Some conservative churches still schedule “soul winning” on the weekly calendar. For example, they might go out in pairs on Thursday evenings and knock on doors with the hope of leading someone to Christ.

Maybe it’s just me, but I cringe when I hear someone say, “soul winning.” As I tell my children nearly every day… Words matter. That terminology suggests the Christian is saving people whether or not that is the intended meaning. The verbiage is man-centered and sounds a little creepy. If for no other reason, let’s leave behind the term because we aren’t saving any souls, you guys. That’s all God.

Planting Seeds

Don’t let me give you the impression that I am against witnessing to others. How can I be? That’s part of our responsibility as Christians. We are to share the gospel message. However, I think we get ourselves into trouble when we demand particular results. Don’t forget that when someone is saved, she has probably had seeds planted along the way. A person’s contact with the gospel, Jesus, and Christianity often occurs many times before salvation. Those contacts are the seeds that others plant along the way which make an individual ready for another person to lead her to Christ.

So, it might appear as if the person you witness to is ignoring you or disinterested, but God can use your interaction in the future. In fact, sometimes this person is deeply convicted and interested, but she isn’t ready to face her sin yet. Either way, your time and love were not wasted.

Tempted To Stop Planting Seeds

If our efforts feel fruitless and discouragement sets in, we are easily tempted to stop sharing the gospel. We wonder, what’s the point?

This attitude can affect how we spiritually engage with everyone, or it can lead us to give up on particular people. We look at them and assume they’re simply too far gone to receive God’s saving grace. I was that kind of person…the too far gone type, I mean. After I was saved, one of my Christian friends expressed how surprised she was because she figured I’d never be a Christian. She was a good friend to me, but I guess she thought my path was set. And it was a broad way with a wide gate (Matthew 7:13).

Plant Seeds: Examples From My Life

Thankfully, over the years Christians had input in my life. Glimmers of truth, kindness I didn’t understand, and lives demonstrating faith in God impacted me in admittedly small and sometimes imperceivable ways. Looking back, though, I can see how God used those interactions and divine appointments to lead me to Himself.

My experience is not unique, and I think Christians can benefit from a snapshot of the seeds planted in someone’s life who eventually was saved. So, today I’m sharing personal examples of planting seeds in three different categories. These are not all the times a Christian touched my life, but they are the most memorable to me.

1. Personal Relationships Can Help You Plant Seeds

Our personal relationships are the most obvious areas in our lives to reach out to others with the gospel, yet it feels like the most impossible audience to approach. I’m sure I was not an easy person to approach about Jesus, but some folks planted seeds, anyway.

Friends

As an adult, most of my friends were self-important atheists who drank too much. So, as you may have guessed, they were just like me. I would have never gone out of my way to befriend a Christian. I hated them most days, and I felt bad for them on the other days. But God put me in a situation that made me desperate enough to look beyond someone’s faith.

Graduate school was my first time living all alone in a town surrounded by strangers. I would have made friends with a head of lettuce if it had been nice to me.

I met two wonderful people in my graduate program who were fun to spend time with and made me feel welcome. They both were…wait for it…professing Christians. They became my best friends, and I spent the next few years in a close friendship with them. These Christian friends told me about their faith and demonstrated character traits I didn’t usually see in the people around me.

No, I didn’t get saved from them giving me a gospel presentation. In fact, they never did. However, they were open about their faith and I began to soften to Christians because I loved them.

Co-Workers

Be careful with co-workers. Some jobs have a zero-tolerance policy on sharing your faith while you’re on the clock. Keep that in mind. I was a school social worker, so you’d assume there were strict rules about that, but the two people who shared their faith with me were friends, as well. I guess that made it all right (or just unreported).

Co-Worker A was a married woman with children who I worked alongside once or twice a week. She was funny, patient, and a good teacher. (I definitely benefited from her guidance on the job.) She was vulnerable about her life with me and talked to me about her faith in Jesus. She never shared the gospel, but she took me aside for some deeper conversations to get me thinking.

Co-Worker B was an acquaintance from graduate school, and we ended up working in the same building once a week. By the end of the first year on the job, he had me take a quiz called Are You a Good Person? Obviously, I’m not, but I cheated on it to get the desired result! The message sank in, though. I had a sin problem.

The Complicated Person

Not all close personal relationships are easy to categorize. For me, my husband is the “complicated person.” At the time, he was my ex-boyfriend. He broke up with me after dating a year (and ring shopping!) because he didn’t want me to hold him back from Jesus. Then, he got saved.

He reached out to me immediately after getting saved to share his new faith. As his just dumped ex-girlfriend, I was less than positively responsive. I told him to get lost, and he did. He devastatingly disappeared from my life. A year later, though, he wrote me a Facebook message to check in. Boy, did I have questions, and he was ready and willing to answer.

Over time, his consistency as a Christian and his willingness to break up with the absolute best girlfriend in the world (um, me) to have Jesus in his life made me take the Lord more seriously. Why? Because he took God seriously.

Pro Tip: Ladies, you might think missionary dating (i.e., dating an unbeliever) will be “fine” because you’ll win him over through your relationship. Think again. Although God is merciful and sometimes brings that to pass, your strong testimony through not pursuing a relationship with him will speak more highly for Jesus than anything else you can do or say.

2. Church Interaction Can Plant Seeds

Of course, attending a Bible preaching church is going to plant seeds, but I didn’t attend any of those when I was young. Until I became a Christian, I was the well-known religion “raised Catholic.”

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD)

I attended CCD, also known as catechism, classes at my local Catholic church through elementary school and junior high. Every Saturday morning during those school years I listened to teachers tell stories about Jesus, recite prayers we must memorize, and encourage me to do good things in the world.

At this point, I can’t tell you a whole lot about those classes. I despised them and thought it was all mythology that some uneducated people pushed on the rest of us. I wasn’t completely wrong because some a lot of what they taught me was unbiblical. Not that I could have known that at the time.

However, those classes and mandatory masses did make me aware of the very real possibility of God. Could I have hated God so much if I didn’t suspect He was real? If He’s imaginary, then what’s there to hate?

I would never send someone to a Catholic church in order to understand the gospel, but I recognize that the Lord became a possibility to me in that environment. And I was never able to shake my suspicion that He existed.

Visiting Other People’s Churches

In graduate school I visited a church with my boyfriend (now my husband) because he was friends with some Christian girls who invited us to come check it out. We figured it wouldn’t hurt to visit and attended one Sunday. I remember disliking it intensely and thinking it wasn’t “churchy” enough. Seeing as I came from a Catholic background and this church was non-denominational in a college town in what looked like someone’s gymnasium…I’m not surprised by my reaction.

The other main impression I had was how worshipful the people seemed to be. They were so full of thankfulness and praise. It in no way reminded me of the Catholic guilt, penance, and monk-like congregational singing to which I was accustomed. These Christians seemed joyful.

Could Jesus bring joy? Peace? Freedom? These were new questions I had. Each new experience I had in a church would plant seeds for my future faith. My heart was softening, though I would have never admitted it. Actually, I only fought harder against Jesus.

Again, I would not necessarily recommend visiting some of the churches I have visited, but God can work through them to reach a lost soul. My interest was piqued, and I wanted answers to questions I was too scared to ask.

3. Strangers Can Plant Seeds

My husband got saved through a door-knocking ministry. A woman he knew called up a Baptist church near him and asked them to visit. They did. They came to his house three times before he finally gave them a chance. He didn’t know these men, but after some Bible studies, those strangers became his brothers in the Lord. You never know what kind of impact you can have as a stranger.

Youth Group Invitation

A high school classmate I didn’t know well invited me to her youth group out of nowhere one day. She did a terrible job inviting me because I didn’t know I was going to a Bible study. I thought it was a get-together for friends. I’m fairly certain I was the only person there who didn’t profess Christ as her Savior.

I went to several of these youth group meetings. Surrounded by strangers, I challenged the youth group leader week after week. I thought I was so smart, and I had a rebuttal to every Bible truth he shared. I was just the worst.

Despite my attitude problem, that youth group leader never pushed me away or made me feel unwelcome. He displayed patience, kindness, and respect toward me even though I gave him none in return.

Youth group was a short-lived season in my life. I went to their overnight lock-in event, and no one approached me or included me in activities. I don’t think they were trying to be mean, so don’t think ill of them. They wanted to have a great night with their friends, not listen to me challenge their faith all night. I finally realized how different I was from them. I had no clue what (or Who) separated us, but it was crystal clear that I didn’t belong in their “club.”

Sometimes people, like the youth group leader, plant seeds by being direct and helpful. Other times, the seed is planted by the stranger’s mere existence. Something about that person is different and people like me wonder if that has anything to do with Christ.

Grocery Store Tract

I worked as a cashier at Meijer for years when I was home for school breaks and for an extended period of time after college. Scanning groceries wasn’t my dream job, but it paid. Plus, most customers were nice enough that I didn’t mind the idle chit-chat too much.

One day, on a slow shift a woman who may have been in her fifties was particularly quiet. She seemed nervous and didn’t look at me. I figured she was shy and continued with my job. After she paid, though, she looked me directly in the eyes and asked if she could give me “this.” I looked down at her hand and saw a piece of paper and candy taped to it. Candy is an automatic affirmative in my world. So, I thanked her, took the paper, and wished her a good day.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered this paper had a bunch of small writing on it. Then I realized that it was some kind of “Jesus paper.” I didn’t know what a tract was yet. That was the first one I had ever seen. I rolled my eyes, tore off the candy, and threw the tract in the garbage unread.

I guess that stranger failed because I didn’t even read what she had given me, right? Well, I don’t think so. I never forgot about that woman and her concern for my spiritual well-being. That small moment has lived on in me ever since. That kind woman, though seemingly nervous, dared to share Christ with me and plant a seed in my life. I’m confident God will bless her for that choice.

Final Thought

Every believer would love to walk alongside someone and lead them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, but most of our interactions with those who don’t know the Lord will not end with that moment. Rather, they will blow us off, give us lip service, politely decline invitations, lash out at us, or bluntly ask us to permanently drop the subject. Why bother?

We keep at it and plant seeds because Jesus gave us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Christians have been commanded to make disciples, but that cannot happen without people hearing the gospel and being saved. So, we continue the work, and God uses those moments we’ve had with others in their lives. There’s no telling how many people have believed, in part, because of something you did or said that pointed to Christ. We may never know, but God does. And that’s enough.

Can you remember a time someone planted seeds in your life before you were saved?

Image courtesy of Daniel Öberg via Unsplash.