Sometimes the Best way to Minister to someone is to keep your Mouth Shut!

A young man approached me, I had never met him- “When I was sixteen my step father would beat and beat me.” “No one would help, so I left home so it would stop.”

I ask silently “Lord what do I do and say?”

“Just listen,” he answers.

An old man I met in the park- “I was an engineer, I was laid off, my wife couldn’t take it, she left and then I lost everything.” “Now I drink to kill the pain I feel inside.”

“Lord I don’t know what to do,” I quietly plead.

“Be still and listen,” He whispers.

Yesterday in the park she says, “My father wrapped his hands around my throat, choked me and beats me.”

“Lord I need to do something and I need you to help,” I scream in my head.

“You stand there, look her in the eyes and just listen” He again says.

Today a new girl, Julie and I met says, “I tried Meth for the first time last night, I am a horrible person for doing that.” “I just want to have friends and I can’t find any friends.” “I am so lonely I can’t stand it and I don’t know what it is like to have someone care about me.” Then it comes, “I hid under the bed when I was five and I watched as my family was murdered.” “I feel guilty for being alive and I don’t understand why I was left.” “I think of killing myself.” She proceeds to spill out.

“Lord please, Oh Lord please give me the words to speak to her. Lord I need to do something here and I am at a loss, please speak to me as to what to do.” I plead silently.

He once again softly speaks to me and say, “look her in the eyes and listen”

Each and every time when all was spilled out, the person would look as to what now. Then I hear His voice again and instead of asking me to be silent, He says, “wrap My arms around them, gentle tell them about the worth I see in them. Tell them about the beautiful person I created. Tell them how much I care about them. Tell them and show them how much they are loved.” The tension leaves, they tear up, but this time they smile and you see in their eyes that something has happened. God did something and when they walk away you realize the Lord did His best ministering in the silent corridors of their heart.

I have asked Him over and over again to use me as He wishes, that I only wish to be Him extend and a willing vessel. So I am learning more and more to just be, be still, be silent, be listening for His direction and be a willing instrument. I am learning that sometimes that means having to just keep your mouth shut and allow Him to do His work in silence.