The sound on my phone went off alerting me to an incoming text. Checking my phone, the message was from Damon. It read: Pray for me.
Damon is a young man that my son Ty met in college. They’ve been friends ever since. A year ago Damon asked if I would be willing to text him a Bible verse each day. This request came after we’d both been to the baby shower hosted for Ty and his wife, Tina. We were both seated at the same table and a conversation began. He told me about his job and I told him about the Immanuel Quilt Ministry.
Soon Damon signed up to receive daily verses and devotions from an app on his phone. I stopped sending daily Scripture to him then, but we continued to check in with one another via his preferred method of communication-texting. Damon is good about periodically sending me messages. This year he was the first one to send me a Happy Mother’s Day message.
Damon had gone out the night before drinking and the guilt and shame was weighing on him. I didn’t know exactly what to pray. Which Name of Jesus was I to call on? Our texting messages went as follows:
Me: Damon have you ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If yes, the Lord loves you and forgives you. There is no need for anxiety or guilt when you confess these things to Jesus. Tell me do you need the Peace of God to remind you of His love for you, or are you in need of the Savior because you’ve never given your life to Him?
Damon: I need the Savior.
I’ve shared His Story with the Immanuel Quilt many times, yet I still feel unqualified to lead someone to Jesus. I immediately walked into the other room where my husband Tom was and handed him my phone and said, “Here, take over.” He told me no. Damon trusted me. It was me he had formed a relationship with, me that he trusted. And it was me that needed to present him the opportunity to invite Jesus into his life. Praying first for the Spirit to help me, I grabbed my quilt notes and started typing my next message.
Me: Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Do you believe what John 3:16 says? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Damon: Yes. I believe.
After months of receiving the Word of God, the Spirit was convicting Damon of his sin. And just like that, Damon’s texted response saved his soul for life eternal. I was given the privilege to lead a young man to Christ-via a text message! Through Christ-another name was written down in heaven!
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2