In Tim LaHaye’s book, “Understanding Bible Prophecy,” he references a Gallup survey on religion revealing 62% of Americans believe in the literal second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. The same percentage also believe Jesus is God. The amazing thing is only 40% of Americans profess to have had a born again experience with Jesus Christ. This book was written a few years ago but things will not have changed very much. That means 22% of Americans, two in ten people you are likely to meet, are ready to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior if they are approached in the right way by a witness for Christ. This is one of the reasons I went from the hard sell approach to witnessing to a more gentle method of speaking passionately about my witness for Christ in order to identify myself to those 2 in 10 who are ready to accept the grace of God unto salvation.
That is better than butting heads with the 80% who are not ready to hear you and will reject you out of hand. Using the gentle approach lets everyone know what you’re about but offends no one. You will be remembered when they need a witness in future. You must continue to winnow the wheat from the chaff which can be time consuming but there is no other way and any amount of effort is worth it if it saves even one person from an eternity in the fires of hell. Take heart in the fact that even in the face of rejection you are sowing the seeds of the gospel that may be reaped later by someone else.
Most people who get saved need to hear the gospel numerous times before they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior so every rejection of the gospel they hear helps bring those people closer to a decision to accept God’s grace. Sower or reaper, it makes no difference; all will be rewarded and God gets the increase. We are merely God’s messenger presenting the gospel of Christ. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to convict a person of their sin and apply God’s saving grace unto eternal life. We only help out. It’s up to God to save someone.