There's no way he can forgive me anymore: A story of desperation
03 Oct 2017I recently heard a story about from a friend who met a Muslim girl with a heartbreaking story.
The other day I was coming home from a long day. I was pretty tired and I was in a hurry to get home and make dinner. I walked quickly by a gypsy lady with a tiny baby begging for money and I threw a coin into her little cup. As I hurried past she made eye contact with me and the Lord prompted me, “What about her soul, you asked me to open your eyes to those around you!”
I turned around and walked back to her. I smiled and greeted her and then asked her how long she had been begging for. She was so surprised that someone would talk with her. She told about how she had run away from home as a 15 year old and gotten married. Her husband is now in prison and she is only 19 years old and left with a small baby with complicated health problems to feed and take care of. She was so sweet and warm and sincere. “You have many difficult things in your life, do you have hope for the future?” I asked her after she had shared her story.
She replied “I am trying to put my hope in God because I know that he is the only one who can help me, but I cannot have hope because I know that I am going to Hell. I want to stop sinning but I can’t. Every day I tell myself that I will stop but I can’t. Sometimes I have to sin in order to feed my baby. Someone told me that you can only repent from a sin 3 times and then God won’t forgive you anymore. I can’t repent because I have used up all my chances by now. I know we are all sinners–even those religious people you see on the street–but we just can’t stop. For us poor people it is worse because we are desperate. How can I have hope for myself? The only hope I have is God but there is no way he can forgive me anymore.”
I was able to share with her the amazing news that Jesus loves her personally so much that he chose to sacrifice his own life and died in her place so that her sins could be wiped clean and she could receive complete forgiveness from God.
They say that 81% of all Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists do not know a single Christian. About 1/3 of the world is ‘unreached,’ meaning they live in a people group or language with little or no exposure to the gospel. There are billions of people like the girl in this story, who simply never get to hear the truth about God’s offer of forgiveness in Jesus. They simply don’t get to meet anyone who will tell them.
How many millions are hungry and thirstry for forgiveness yet live, struggle, and die without the chance to hear about it once?
Reaching them is simple. We just need people who know Jesus to go, learn their language, and listen to God’s voice. Who will let go of their life and go?
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38)