I spent this past week down in an Alabama prison with We Care Ministries.
In that jailhouse I met many very different women, but they all had one thing in common.
Each story I heard started out with a childhood that lacked love.
It was heart breaking to hear these poor women share about how they were rejected, abused and molested. And a common theme was that the abuse came from the very ones who, of all people, should have loved and protected them. Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, Uncles, Sisters, Brothers, Grandparents, the people expected to love you the most.
In search of acceptance and love these women found themselves in abusive relationships, heavy drug use, and alcohol oblivion. Their self worth was trampled on and lost. These women lived day-to-day in the worst kind of situations imaginable but didn’t even try to get out because they felt like they didn’t deserve anything better.
At a first glance all you could see was helpless addicts, and hardened criminals. But when I took the time to meet and get to know these women I found that each one had a very soft spot deep down inside. The part of them that was just longing to be loved.
These women are sinners. Each one had her own history. Many had done some incredibly horrible and nasty things. But in so many ways they were just like you and I!
And that is what I was able to share with these women.
They would tell me “you aint an inmate” “you can’t never have done anything wrong”.
But I would correct them. I told them that yes, maybe I’ve never done exactly what they had done, (I’ve never killed nobody, or even slept with a man), but God’s looking at the heart, not just the actions.
I was able to share with them verses like “Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And “Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I was honest and real with these women. I shared my personal testimony and went into detail. I told them how I was headed down the same path that they had continued on. I told them how thankful I am for my parents and the the upbringing they gave me which was based on the Bible and obedience to Gods standards.
A good foundation can really change ones life direction.
I didn’t separate myself or my sin from all of theirs, because as James 2:10 says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
I too was once a hell bound sinner. The only boast I can make about my different life is that Jesus showed his love to the sinner that was me. And I had fallen on the mercy of Jesus the Savior to have my sins washed clean in his precious blood. Then, with the biggest smile on my face, I would tell them that they too could find forgiveness and grace. They could get a clean record and a new life. They could be a beautiful testimony of how the love and power of God can turn a life around and set it on the path of glory!
Love is the only thing that can break through a hard shell. I was amazed by how much these inmates enjoyed the team and I coming into their prison! They loved us all and couldn’t thank us enough. I had a number of ladies tell me that I had changed their life.
I had gone inside the prison to let the light inside of me shine, and let the love of Jesus flow out out of me. Jesus is the source of all my love, joy, peace, and comfort. He is MY LOVE! Because of him I am who I am today. As I laughed, smiled, and gave hugs, hardened hearts were opened and broken. I saw lives be transformed by the power of the Gospel!
I’m not here to brag on myself, as I told the inmates, the only thing that makes me different from them is that the power of God is as work in my life, and it is His strength that enables me to say no to temptations. I was but the messenger for the greatest message the world could ever hear.
I have come home with a burden to LOVE. I can’t help but think, “What if these inmates parents had only loved them as they should have?”
We all have been created in the image of God. Just as God wants to be loved, so we His creatures desire to be loved. When we do not receive enough love we go a looking for it. Often times we find “easy love” in all of the wrong places and come to find that it’s not real love after all.
I beg you to be a lover and a friend! You never know what a simple smile or a few words of encouragement might do for a person who is desperate for love. Go give it a try!
Tell people how much you enjoy them, what you like about them, and how good they look. Just go ahead and encourage people, and be sure to smile!
And as you go about practically displaying the love of God that is inside of you, the doors will be opened to share the love of God which is being offered to them. Jesus is the love of God, sacrificed for the sins of the world
1John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Jesus is our lover and our friend! If you have been washed in his blood then you are to be a lover and a friend!
