I am sure you are familiar with the phrase ‘five-a-day.’ It is a catchy little slogan to ensure we are eating plenty of fruit and vegetables to maintain a healthy diet. But I want to take that phrase in a slightly different direction.
Think about five people in your sphere of influence who do not yet know Christ and make a commitment that you will pray, consistently, for those five, every day, wherever you are. I read about this simple idea in George Müller’s diaries: ‘In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be.’
This ‘five-a-day’ feels almost too simple an idea to mention to such a sophisticated readership as en, and yet it is the simple things that often matter most. Mark Twain once said: ‘It’s not those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.’
Often I disappear into theological conjecture to avoid the plain and simple commands Christ has laid before me. Commands like ‘Love one another’, and this outstanding command: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).
Sometimes as church leaders we can feel exempt from this kind of personal evangelism. After all, as we preach on Sundays, we are often sharing the gospel with a host of people sitting right in front of us. Why do we need to think of friends and family and neighbours beyond that? Isn’t that the job of the congregation? We ‘equip’: we are not meant to ‘do’ (Eph. 4:11). And yet Paul’s words to Timothy keep ringing in my ears: ‘… do the work of an evangelist.’
If you have been a church leader for any length of time, you will realise that your flock rarely rise above the spiritual temperature of your own heart. Your congregation become almost a mirror image of who you are, and that is just as the Lord planned it – ‘follow me as I follow Christ.’ To put it starkly, my people will not be passionate about personal evangelism if they don’t think I am.
We must lead the way in taking at least five people on our hearts every day, who do not yet know the Lord, and pray for their souls, for divine light to seep into their darkened hearts and then look actively for opportunities to share the faith with them. It is amazing what can happen when we are intentional about evangelism.
God answers prayer
George Müller’s diary insert continues: ‘Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.’
But that is not where the story ends. After Müller died, the two others he had prayed for faithfully – sons of a friend of his – came to Christ. His prayers lived on beyond his death. And so can yours. Choose your ‘five-a-day’. Name them before the Lord, like the High Priest carrying the names of the tribes of Israel on his heart as he entered the tabernacle.
And then watch what God will do. The reason I am writing this article is because one of my five, an Irish neighbour from across the street, came to me about six months ago and told me he had come to faith, out of the blue, after reading a Try Praying leaflet he picked up in our church car park! Having grown disillusioned over my lack of ‘success’ praying for my five over the years, I found a new spring in my step and deeper trust in the Lord.
Last week, my secretary came to faith. She was also one of my five, and one of the five that several others in the congregation were praying for. God answers prayer. So, choose your five today, ‘do the work of an evangelist’, with the sure and certain promise that those who ‘sow with tears will reap with joy’.
