Tragedy

Do not be surprised if, in a church of 22,000, you can only find 300 who are prepared to reach out to the lost. Sadly, most Christians are afraid to share their faith with nonbelievers and would rather stay home than tell others how to find eternal life. Such reluctance among churchgoing Christians is a tragedy, but it will leave you with an army (small though it may be) of soldiers who keep their eyes peeled for opportunities to present the gospel message to the unsaved.

These soldiers know that the fear they battle isn’t from God. They are aware that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12), and they are the ones God will use for His purposes.

Judges 7:3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.”5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.”6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.”