How to Witness to Hurting People

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”

JOHN WESLEY

Kirk Cameron’s Comment

This is a very important and beneficial lesson. It helped me tremendously with a concern I had about how to share Christ with someone who is really hurting. I recommend reading it twice.

Questions & Objections

Lesson

An unsaved woman recently confided in a preacher that she harbored bitterness toward God, because both her father and her brother were victims of murder. The question then arises, how do we witness to a person in such a state? Do we blatantly talk about sin, righteousness, and judgment? The answer can be seen in the story of a little boy who was running through some woods. He suddenly tripped over a log and cut his jugular vein on a stick. His father quickly picked him up and held his finger tightly on the vein to stop the blood flow as they rushed the child to a hospital.

As they entered the operating room, the distressed child held out his thumb to the surgeon. When he had fallen, a splinter of wood had entered his thumb. Of course the good doctor ignored the boy’s plea to remove the splinter, and immediately set to work on stopping the blood flow from his jugular vein.

There are not many in the world who escape suffering. Two hundred thousand people were murdered in the U.S. during the 1990s, leaving perhaps a million loved ones to fight bitterness and ask why God allowed the murder to happen. No doubt each unsaved person held up a pained thumb to God, when He is more interested in stopping the blood flowing from the jugular vein. We expect God to immediately fix what we consider the most serious wound, when God wants to first deal with the “sin” issue—that which will be the death and eternal damnation of us. So, if we as Christians care about the will of God and the eternal welfare of the person to whom we are speaking, we will go for the jugular; we will speak about the sin issue.

However, it goes without saying that we need to show a deep empathy for the person who is suffering as we gently take him through the Law. This may require a little practice, but it is something in which each of us must become proficient, if we want to see the lost come to Christ.

This is how best to handle the sensitive issue of witnessing to someone who is hurting. Tell him that you are sorry about his loss. Again, make sure that you show genuine sensitivity, then do what a surgeon would do with a severed jugular vein. Turn immediately to the serious issue at hand: the person’s salvation. Unless you know that the deceased was a Christian, stay clear of any talk about whether or not the loved one went to heaven or hell, by saying that God is good and that He will do what is right on Judgment Day.

Say something like, “When we are confronted with the issue of death, it can often make us think about God and about our own eternal salvation. Do you ever think about God? Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” Then gently take him through the Law.

If there is any offense, apologize and change the subject. But more than likely you will find that by talking about his personal salvation, it will be like a complete subject change, and therefore won’t be offensive.

If he has any bitterness toward God that is hindering him from opening his heart, gently let him know that many people have suffered terrible losses in this life, and they have let that suffering bring them to the cross, and consequently to everlasting life. An analogy that may be helpful is to say that if someone offers to lift you out of quicksand, don’t let the fact that you don’t like the color of their skin, or you can’t understand why they are wearing certain clothes, etc., stop you from giving your hand to your rescuer. God offers to lift us out of the quicksand of death itself. Tell the person: “Let God pull you out, and once you are saved, ask your questions. If you don’t get an answer in this life, you are guaranteed to get one in the next.”

Preacher’s Progress

A sample witnessing conversation, written in the style of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Feathers for Arrows

Khrushchev, the Soviet leader in the sixties, said, “The chief failure with communism is its inability to create a new man.” He was right. Communism said, “A new coat for every man,” while Jesus Christ says, “A new man in every coat.”

If we didn’t like the way pigs lived, we could take a pig and scrub it clean, put deodorant under its pig-pits, and place it in a clean, thickly carpeted room. In a few days, however, the place would become a pig-sty. The only way to change a pig is to change its nature. The same applies to man. Politics cannot change the heart of man. History proves that. The only one who can change the human heart is Almighty God. When an item breaks down, take a look at the Instruction Book. The Bible says sin is the cause of all human suffering. Jesus Christ is the only cure.

Questions

1. Why do you think tragedy makes some people look to God, while others become bitter?
2. Would you consider a surgeon who dealt with a splinter, rather than a severed jugular vein, to be a good surgeon?
3. Why must we “go for the jugular” when speaking with someone who is suffering?
4. What must you remember when speaking with someone who has lost a loved one?
5. Why should you avoid any talk about the salvation of a deceased loved one?

Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.

Memory Verse

“Every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

Matthew 19:29

Last Words

William of Normandy (943 A.D.), in a farewell word, ordered that his body be placed in a stone coffin and not buried, but placed under the eaves outside the chapel for this reason: “That the drippings of the rain from the roof may wash my bones as I lie, and cleanse them from the impurity contracted in my sinful and neglected life.”

William of Normandy