Fishing With Trish...

Question: How do you deal with rejection? For example, when someone throws your gospel tract in the trash or doesn't want to hear the Gospel?

Answer: It used to really bother me when someone threw my tract in the trash or when they got visible upset at the gospel. Well, okay, honestly sometimes it still does bother me - but the next time you get rejected for the Gospel's sake or someone takes your tract and throws it in the trash or you're yelled at, just move on to the next person.

Think about a honey bee. It doesn’t sting the flower when it doesn't have pollen, it just moves on to the next flower to see if it can find pollen there. So when you have a "bad" witnessing encounter take courage friend and don’t get upset and “sting” the individual. Just move on to the next person.

Remember not to take it personal. It's the message they are rejecting, not you. Perhaps the Gospel has struck a cord in them. You just never know, do you? There's a saying, "the dog that barks the loudest is the one that most likely got hit".

I'm comforted by Jesus' words towards the Christian: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt 5: 11-12). And 1 Peter 4:14, says, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

Be encouraged! There's no such thing as a bad witnessing encounter. Every time we share our faith it is a winning situation! We can never lose when we share the Gospel. Either the individual will get saved, or a seed will be planted, or their heart will be hardened (and God is glorified even in that). And if they throw the tract on the ground, another could come by and pick it up. I've watched this happen many times.

Don't ever give up sharing the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through the foolishness of the preaching of the Gospel that people will be saved. I pray that God will empower you to preach the Gospel in 2014 more than you ever have before.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16