Lent, Day 29: Just love them as He does

Well, it looks like I'm not the only one who carried home the commission to spread the Good News... Our youth pastor has put his lesson plan aside to teach and discuss with our teens how to "win people to Christ." Now, while I really like this idea and I hate to sound mean and critical, I hate that phrase! It makes evangelizing sound like a game or competition with people as some sort of prize. Yes, salvation is a gift with the prize of eternity in heaven. And the Bible says all of heaven rejoices whenever someone repents (Luke 15:7). But, I have very little to do with someone making that choice - all I can do, in fact, is show the love of Christ in the way I live, point to Him when asked about the blessings in my life, and tell them how they can have Him too. I have learned that after that it's up to the Holy Spirit and all I can do is pray. So, having the mind set that I can win someone to Him just leads to stress and feelings of defeat or guilt if someone does not immediately accept Christ as Lord. We cannot beat ourselves up because of someone else's decision, we can only love them as Christ does.