Is Jesus Still In The People Business?

I’m a prayer warrior and I love to pray for people BUT sometimes it can be overwhelming! I have had soooo many prayer request lately that are huge. People with major diseases or major accidents or just major problems in general. I have to be honest with you the other day I got a prayer request emailed to me and I didn’t open it because my heart felt so heavy I couldn’t bare to read another persons pain.
I honestly could not start one more week without having alone time with the Lord and reading my Bible.
Having a full house right now makes it hard for me to have alone time. I’m not complaining I’m just stating a fact.
I had decided this weekend I wasn’t going anywhere on Sunday no church, not friends, no family. I would do nothing but spend time with the Lord.
Truth is I needed to get some stuff off my chest about this praying thing I was struggling with.
I just wasn’t sure how I was going to find something for the rest of my family to do J
The Lord obviously had the same idea because Anthony, my oldest son, came home that day and told me he was given 5 free tickets to the 3rd Day Concert. The man who was generous enough to give them to him told him they would be at the gate of the concert for him.
Of course he offered to give me one and was planning on buying a ticket for Nathanael (his brother).
I being the generous and needing a plan mom that I am told him to give Nathanael my ticket and I would make the sacrifice and stay home alone.
As soon as they left and the house was quiet I began my conversation with God.
It went something like this;
Lord I totally believe in the power of prayer and I love to pray for people but lately I feel like I’m wasting my time. There are more request than answers and you said we would be able to do greater things than Jesus and I haven’t performed one miracle or prayed one person well never less raise someone from the dead. There are people hurting EVERYWHERE and I don’t have any answers. Are you still answering prayers Lord? Are you still in the people business?
Of course I know the answer is yes but I’m just being real here with you Gems.
I started to read my Bible hoping some great answer would jump off the page at me.
Then my mind started wandering to my kids. I prayed for them to be safe and have a good time and then I started thinking about parking. Oh my gosh,
they would probably need money to park and I know none of them had any cash. I prayed the Lord would handle it.
That was about the biggest prayer request I could handle at that point.
I had a good time with the Lord and was feeling a little better when I heard the door open and in came my gang who promptly crawled onto my bed with me.
I could not believe 4 hours went by that quick. Why doesn’t work go that fast?
They were all excited about their night and what a good time they had and couldn’t wait to tell me what happened.
When they got to the concert they indeed needed money to park. Anthony said they drove a little ways down the road and there was a dirt road right by the parking lot and as luck would have it his car fit right in. Parking problem solved.
As they headed toward the gate they met a woman who was giving away a free ticket and she asked if they needed it. Anthony said no they had tickets, thanked her and they continued on their way.
When they got to the gate there was a mix up and there were only 4 tickets there. Did I mention they had no cash? They quickly went back into the crowd and found the woman with the free ticket and she gave it to them.
What are the chances they found her and she still had it….. Hmmmm sounds like God is still in the people business.

I went to work the next day and my dear friend April called me and we decided to meet for lunch. I told April I would meet her at the McDonalds near my job. When I got there she wasn’t there so I waited a few minutes. Then it hit me, I knew she was at the wrong McDonalds. I called and sure enough she was at a different one. I was sure I told her I was in the Target shopping Center.
I drove to meet her and when I got there she too was feeling overwhelmed. April does local outreach for our church and does an amazing job. We have a huge church and I can’t begin to tell you the amount of people she and her team ministers to. My prayer list was mi-nute compared to the amount of people she was reaching out to.
I love people like April because you can be real with her. I was asking her the same thing I told you. Is Jesus still in the people business?
It’s all too much, how do we keep it together? How do we minister to all these people?
April also has a real heart for people and we both had heavy hearts.

We were sitting at a table next to the window and it was really cold outside. We both looked out the window at the same time and saw a man with a small boy about 3 walking toward the building. What caught our attention was the fact that the man had on a nice warm coat but the little boy only had on a light sweat shirt and was bare foot.
It was way to cold a day for bare feet. They came into McDonalds and went into the bathroom that April and I just happened to be sitting near.
We both just looked at each other and didn’t have to say a word we knew we would talk to him when he came out.
As he went by us on his way toward the front I asked him if the boy needed shoes and he said yes. It ended up there was a little girl 2 years old with him too. She was not only bare foot but had no jacket at all!
Both children were pretty dirty and the little girl’s hair was matted in the back.
April and I packed up our stuff and followed them out the door. The children were handed off to another woman, who also had on a nice warm jacked. We asked her to meet us at the Big Lott in the shopping Center so we could buy the children some shoes and she agreed.
April and I picked out socks and shoes for the children who were very excited to have something on their feet. We asked the woman if she knew what size shoe they wore and she didn’t.
Gems their little feet were so black from the road and they had cuts on their feet and toes. They had been bare foot a while. We fit them for shoes and proceeded to look for jackets. We had to go the Bealls Outlet next door for those. The children talked and talked and the woman just followed us around, she seemed detached and to be honest pretty emotionless. The little girl lifted her arms up and asked April to carry her it was all we could do not to burst into tears.
April and I continued to speak with our eyes. Why were the adults in warm clothes and able to buy cigarettes and these children were without even a pair of shoes. None of that mattered now it was about the 2 toddlers in front of us.
As I put on the boys new coat I told him that Jesus loved him. I could tell by his expression he had no idea what I was talking about.
Later when April was helping him pick out a toy, yes we bought them a toy; she too told him that Jesus loved him.
Then the sweetest thing happened. He looked up at April with his little freckled face and asked why she was at McDonalds. April told him Jesus sent her there for him; he then asked “was Jesus at McDonalds too?”
The Lord spoke to me right there and then. “Yes Gena, I’m still in the people business and this is how you do it. One person at a time.”
You better believe Jesus was at McDonalds!
God had April and I meet that day with the same heart, sent April to the “wrong” McDonalds, the extra time it took me to drive there was the exact time needed for April and I to have a chance to share our hearts and then be ready to see these precious little children with no shoes.
April and I were humbled and honored to be Jesus today and as always all of us were ministered to.
Jesus cares about little things like parking places and concert tickets and he cares about big things like children who are cold and need shoes.
Jesus is still in the people business and He’s hoping we are too.