I recently read the story of a young girl who led a man to Jesus in Korea.
She prayed diligently and would not be deterred by this man’s anger and bitterness. She wept over his soul in secret and spoke to him openly about Jesus Christ.
Eventually the one she was praying for was radically saved and has touched the lives of millions all over the world.
The young Buddhist man who was saved that day was Dr. David Yonggi Cho.
He now pastors the single largest Christian congregation in the world. It’s membership stands at nearly 1 million people. He has influenced many more millions for the Gospel over his more than 50 years of ministry
The story of this young girl named speaks to me on so many levels….faithfulness, eternal mindedness, perserverance, brokeness, boldness, true love, and more.
As a Buddhist, a young Yonggi Cho was dying of tuberculosis. It was a deadly disease with no cure or treatment then.
He prayed to Buddha to help him, but he only got worse.
As a last resort he decided to cry out to the God some of his friends believed in, the “God he did not know.” He cried out, “God, I want to live! I want to live! Please help me!”
Soon after this a girl in a high school uniform came to his home unexpectantly. She was a friend of his sister I believe. “Is anyone home” she asked. “Who is it”? Cho replied. She replied, “Hi, you’re a student also. You look sick. Do you want me to help you?” She then told Cho that she wanted to tell him about the most important person in the world.
She preached Jesus to him, crucified for his sin, curses, and disease and risen from the dead in power. She pleaded with him to receive Jesus, but he rejected her story as a lie and screamed at her to leave and never return.
The next day the girl returned and told Cho how she had prayed for Him and began to cry for him even though she didn’t know him well. She told him how God was a loving God and had a special love for him. She told him the Gospel again and began to vist him day after day. Cho kept telling himself not to believe the girl’s stories, but he couldn’t keep her words out of his head.
Cho relates that the girl came each day until a week had passed. He finally lashed out again in anger telling her, “Hey, I don’t want to listen to what you are saying. I don’t believe in Jesus! I don’t need Jesus and I don’t need you to keep telling me what to believe, do stop coming! Don’t you dare come back here again!”
This girl didn’t flinch. She knelt down right in front of Cho and without saying anything she brought her hands together and began to pray sincerely for him. She prayed, “Lord! Please save my friend. Please cure him from the disease that is ailing him and please have mercy on him. Let him know Jesus…Oh, let him know!”
Tears began streaming down her face as she cried out to God in front of him.
Cho stood there in silent awe as this girl wept openly for him. His heart began to thaw and had the feeling that someone was knocking on the door of his heart. He broke saying,
“Please don’t cry! I’m sorry. I will believe. I will at least try. You make me want to know this Jesus. Really. So, please stop crying.”
The young girl jumped for joy and shouted to Heaven. She placed a Bible in Cho’s hands and he eventually began to devour it. 6 months later, he was completely healed from terminal tuberculosis. He has spent the rest of his life letting the world know about that same Jesus to saved and healed him.
It makes me think.
What would have the world missed if that one little girl had given up on that then angry bitter and dying young man?
How deep is my love for people like this?
Am I broken for those who have not yet received the grace of Jesus?
How quickly would I have given up?
Would I have even started a conversation with him in the first place?
Am I sensitive to God’s heart like she was?
When I consider what was at stake in that moment, it gives me alot to think about.
