Some of you will remember the story I shared a couple of years ago of “The Guy on the Bench“.

Well, I had continued meeting with him pretty regularly for a year and a half after the events of that story. While he showed a lot of interest in reading the Bible together, and he had a lot of really good questions, he never seemed to show much interest in actually becoming a follower of Jesus.

Whenever people would ask him about what he believed, he would always say “I don’t accept any religion; I don’t believe in any of that stuff”. However, whenever we would meet together, talk together, and read scripture together, it always seemed pretty clear to me that Holy Spirit was speaking to him and working in his heart… But it never seemed to result in any fruit or change in his life. We’ve since both moved to different cities, and largely lost contact with each other.

I was praying last week, asking Jesus about this stuff. I asked, “Lord, did I waste my time with that guy? I spent so many hours with him, but didn’t really see any fruit from any of it. What gives with that?” I didn’t get an answer from Holy Spirit about that question…but this past Tuesday, I got a message from my friend. It said, “Hey, I have some news I want to tell you. I gave my life to Jesus 2 weeks ago. I realized that my heart is only hungry for and only filled by Jesus. Thank you so much for taking so much time to read the Bible with me, and to answer all my questions. My life is completely different now because of you. Thank you so much!”

I almost cried seeing that message. So many hours talking with and praying for my friend…and the Lord bore fruit in his heart! But I guess that makes sense…Isaiah 55:10-11 says: