Communist dictator Joseph Stalin is credited with the quote, "The death of one is a tragedy. The death of a million is just a statistic."
While many people may be shocked at both the quote and the person who said it, there is indeed some truth to this saying, which teaches us something about the way we perceive lostness. In most countries today, over 90 percent of the population does not have a living relationship with Jesus. Millions upon millions of people are on a collision course with eternity and will perish, yet to most of us, this is merely a statistic!
On the other hand, if we picture just one person that we know who is possibly facing a godless eternity, somehow it pulls our heartstrings.
God knows and loves every individual. He knows and loves every person who is separated from Him and deeply desires them to be reconciled with Him. We must do whatever we can to make loss more personal—to see every person the way God sees them.
We can do this by writing out a list of all the people we know who are far from God at the moment and who are in our lives. Each day, we can pray for these people to listen to the Holy Spirit. Each day, we can pray that we (or someone else) will have an opportunity today to tell them of the wonderful hope that is in Jesus Christ. Pray for just one opening and the courage to jump through it.
How could you start such a conversation if they do not initiate it? There are many ways, but you could try this simple icebreaker, and if they are not warm to the topic, leave it for now and keep on praying for them.
Temporal to Eternal Icebreaker #1:
“If God could do a miracle today for you or your family, what would it look like?”
Give it a go. What will it cost you to try it? What could it cost them if you don’t try?
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