Today we look at how to approach someone who needs guidance, direction or rebuke, but who has not asked for your involvement in their life. One of the best definitions I have found for agape is a love that gives someone what they need even if they don't want it. John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The love in this verse is agape. Man didn't want a Savior (see Romans 3:11 says: "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."). Yet God in His love for us knew what we needed and that is what He provided.
Sometimes in our lives, we see people that need to be told to cease certain behavior or to do other behavior. How do we involve ourselves in their lives? The answer is that we must have the same type of agape love for them. Paul sets the standard in Galatians 4:19: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Ask any Mother about the travail of childbirth and you will learn about what it takes to intervene in the life of another. We are to travail in prayer; we are to take that one that needs help and bring them before the throne of God and cry out for them. After we have "travailed" for them, then we can approach them. Too many in the church just want to "give it to them and set them straight." This is not the right approach and generally does far greater damage than saying nothing. The good rule to remember is to talk to God about them before you talk to them about God.
The point today is that there is a cost before you begin to disciple another believer. It costs you something. It costs you travail; it costs you emotional energy to care enough about another to go before God and cry for them. Today, is there someone you need to travail for? If so, do not delay. Go before God who is rich in mercy and grace and cry out for that one who needs a word in due season.
No comments:
Post a Comment