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Finding Those Hungering and Thirsting for Truth

DOES Jehovah God ignore the petitions of persons who, although uninformed about his will, nevertheless, seek to know it and do it? No, for God lovingly brings his servants into contact with these sincere ones. Consider this experience from one of Jehovah’s witnesses in Iowa:

“Last March a series of unusual happenings occurred to me by which I found a person who was sincerely seeking to know the truth of God’s Word. After leaving the home of an elderly Witness whom I had just visited, I began to walk to the home of another Witness several blocks away.

“I suddenly remembered that there was a greenhouse just two blocks out of the way and that I should go there to arrange to have a new basket of flowers made for the stage in our Kingdom Hall.

“A young woman waited on me and asked where the flowers were to be sent. I told her to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She asked me if I was the minister there and when I replied Yes, she asked me if I had a few minutes to talk to her. In the conversation that followed, she asked many questions on a variety of topics. She mentioned that she had always wanted to be a missionary. I explained that she could be one and gave her some details about our work. Not wanting to take up too much of her time, I concluded, saying, ‘You know, what you need is a Bible study.’

“She replied, ‘Yes, I do.’ I made arrangements for my wife and me to study the Bible with her in her home. She was regular in her studies and by May she was attending all the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. Soon after, she was sharing what she learned with others by going out in the house-to-house ministry.

“What she told me later made me thankful that I responded to the original desire to go to the greenhouse that morning. She said that she had been praying repeatedly to God that he would show her the right way she promised that she would do it, whatever it was. Evidently, Jehovah did his part, and now she is keeping her promise to do his will.”

Another Witness in Iowa had this experience: “One day my daughter and I were preaching, and in two large blocks we found only one person at home. Then a young woman came walking down the street. She was on her way to meet some children coming out of school. I offered her the latest magazines, and she said that she would like to have them but she had no money with her. I gave her the magazines, took her address and promised to call at her home later to discuss them with her.

“When I called, she told me that she was severely depressed and was even contemplating suicide. She had spoken to various clergymen about her problems, but they were all too busy to talk with her. Even her pleas of how desperately she needed help went unheeded. I arranged to study the Bible with her, and as we did so I learned that she and her husband had studied with different religious groups. None had answered her questions from the Bible.

“Now that she was learning things from the Bible, she wanted her husband to learn too. Arrangements were made to visit with him, and after thirty minutes of discussion he exclaimed, ‘You know something? This is the truth.’ We began a family study with them. In time they began attending all the meetings at the Kingdom Hall, even though it meant driving fifty miles for each meeting.

“Later I found out that for some unexplained reason the wife had left home thirty minutes earlier than usual the day we happened to meet her on the street. She said that she often prayed for the answer to her problems. Now Jehovah has shown her and her family his solution to them all.”

Truly Jehovah does not ignore the cries of those hungering and thirsting for the truth. He sees to it that they are led into the “tracks of righteousness.”​—Ps. 23:3.