He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30
{CHAMBERS} “If
you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a
servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom”
(John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus
Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And
when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful
struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even
ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from
Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in
someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s
will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.”
Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One
day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow
Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.””
{ELGIN} What is
the most important thing, knowing Jesus and trusting Him or being free from
worry and care? We know what the “spiritually correct” answer is, don’t we. When we see someone in distress, what is our
typical response? We show compassion
towards them, as we should. But should
we intervene? Certainly we should pray,
but what should we pray? To what end? Our
first priority should always be that they trust Jesus and seek God. Their being healed from a disease may bring
temporary relief in this life, but will matter little if they spend eternity in
hell. But what if they are already a believer?
God could well be allowing this trial to draw them closer or to shape
them for His purpose. Too know that
requires spiritual discernment. Before
you step in to “help”, look to the Lord for guidance. In Acts 3 when Peter and John met the lame man,
Peter said “silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give you, rise up
and walk in the name of Jesus Christ” The best thing we have to offer is Jesus.
You know you can’t save anyone, salvation is God initiated, Spirit
powered and totally dependent upon the person being saved to put their faith in
Jesus. But, that is not to say that the
Spirit does not use you in communicating the Message. You are a messenger not the Savior, but don’t
neglect the message. How and when you do
that is between you and the Spirit. But
deliver the message you must, then leave the rest to God. (2
Timothy 4:2) “Preach the word; be
prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with
great patience and careful instruction.”
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