Difficult Decisions
All of my ministry has been trying to lead people to the Lord in salvation and then to lead them to grow into the likeness of Jesus. I think that is God's will for every believer. We are to be His witnesses, and we are to encourage other believers to grow in love and good works.
The hard part comes when I am confronted with a person who does not want to know Christ or with a believer who does not want to grow to be like Jesus. How do you help a person who doesn't want to be helped? I suppose I could say that it is impossible and give up, but that is not real love. Love suffers long. Love never fails. I do not think that Jesus gives me the right to give up on someone just because they do not want Christ or they do not want to grow in Him. Therein lie the difficult decisions. What do I do to get through to folks like these.
One option is to be direct and to confront them about their need. I have seen that succeed on many occasions, but I have also seen it fail many times, too. The other option is to pray for them and to encourage them in a more gentle way. Again, this method has worked in the past to bring people to Christ and to lead them to grow, but it has also failed. Therefore, the challenge is to know when to confront and when to be gentle. I can't say that I know the answer to that except to stay so close to the Lord and so full of His Spirit that I can discern His voice to me at all times. The key is the Holy Spirit working on the heart of the indifferent person, so I must be sensitive to what the Spirit is doing and what He wants me to do. Then, there can be a breakthrough.
Please, pray for me and all believers to have this type of spiritual discernment, because our mission is vital. Failure is terrible, but success is sublime.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 14-15 and James 2.
The hard part comes when I am confronted with a person who does not want to know Christ or with a believer who does not want to grow to be like Jesus. How do you help a person who doesn't want to be helped? I suppose I could say that it is impossible and give up, but that is not real love. Love suffers long. Love never fails. I do not think that Jesus gives me the right to give up on someone just because they do not want Christ or they do not want to grow in Him. Therein lie the difficult decisions. What do I do to get through to folks like these.
One option is to be direct and to confront them about their need. I have seen that succeed on many occasions, but I have also seen it fail many times, too. The other option is to pray for them and to encourage them in a more gentle way. Again, this method has worked in the past to bring people to Christ and to lead them to grow, but it has also failed. Therefore, the challenge is to know when to confront and when to be gentle. I can't say that I know the answer to that except to stay so close to the Lord and so full of His Spirit that I can discern His voice to me at all times. The key is the Holy Spirit working on the heart of the indifferent person, so I must be sensitive to what the Spirit is doing and what He wants me to do. Then, there can be a breakthrough.
Please, pray for me and all believers to have this type of spiritual discernment, because our mission is vital. Failure is terrible, but success is sublime.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 14-15 and James 2.