Day 3: The Benefits of Urgency

What if people don’t want to be rescued? What if they don’t recognize their own danger? What if they don’t believe in God at all? Our witness can still serve as a roadblock to hell, prompting them to reconsider their own mortality and their relationship with God.

Research suggests the average person hears the good news of Jesus about seven times before surrendering their life to Him. So even when someone doesn’t seem to respond, we may be the second or third time they’ve heard. Because we share in a loving, respectful way, they actually consider what we’re saying. We move them one step closer to the decision that will change their eternity.

Three realities should drive urgency for evangelism in every believer.

1. Our lifetime is short, finite, and unpredictable. We are only promised today to share our faith. That is why the Bible declares, “today is the day of salvation.”
2. Jesus is coming soon, perhaps today. Most believers agree that all biblical prophecies required before the rapture of the church have already been fulfilled. We believe in the imminent return of Jesus: He could come at any moment.
3. At the end of our lives, when Jesus evaluates our works, there will be regret. Believers will wish they had shared their faith more often, especially with key loved ones. Unbelievers will wish they had surrendered their lives to Jesus, despite the many times His Spirit spoke to their hearts. This is why Solomon wrote that we learn more from a funeral than from a feast (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

As the old hymn says: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Tomorrow is neither deserved nor promised.

Urgency for evangelism is not radical. It is a normal, proper response to what we believe.