Selections from Acts 9
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision ... "Get up and go to the street called Straight ... to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him so he may regain his sight." "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go! For this man is My chosen instrument."
Ananias had good reason to be a little scared. Saul of Tarsus wasn't just your average convert - (if he really was converted) and with just the slightest wobble in his own spiritual perception, Ananias could be heading for a date with the dungeon. He's between God and a hard place.
You've seen him walk into church. The man whose wife and children have been coming by themselves for years. The man who reportedly told the preacher not to ever bother coming to visit him again - ever! Now he says he wants to become a Christian. People go down to shake his hand, but their smiles have that I'll-believe- it-when-I-see-it look, that see-if-he's-still-here-this-time-next-year look. He's not asking to be a deacon, for crying out loud. He just wants to give his life to Christ. Doesn't God do that here anymore?
Look at it this way ...
Let me think of the worst individual I know, the one for whom I have no affinity, the one who is a continual thorn in my flesh, who is as mean as can be; can I imagine that person being presented perfect in Christ Jesus? It ought to be an easy thing for the Christian who thinks, to conceive of any and every kind of person being presented perfect in Christ Jesus, but how seldom do we think! If I am an earnest evangelical preacher, I may say to someone, "Oh, yes, I believe God can save you," while in my heart of hearts I don't believe there is much hope for him. Our unbelief stands as the supreme barrier to Jesus Christ's work in people's souls. But once let me get over my slowness of heart to believe in Jesus Christ's power to save, and I become a real generator of his power to others. Are we banking in unshaken faith on the redemption, or do we allow men's sins and wrongs to so obliterate Jesus Christ's power to save that we hinder his reaching them? - Oswald Chambers
A final thought:
Ask God to give you a new heart for the lost -- a heart that breaks over men and women who are rejecting his love and kindness, a heart that believes it when God gets through.