Most worldly folks, I believe, find it easier to see themselves being bad than being good.
I’d proffered that notion in this place sometime back.
Remember, I’m a been-around-a-while Christian, who came to Jesus after nearly half a lifetime of worldly living.
I’d come to understand a lot of the ways of the unbeliever simply by association.
Running in the worldly crowd, I often crossed paths with folks who think like this: You’re right with God if you sometimes go to church, you occasionally read (not study and understand) the Good Book and you, every now and then, do a good deed for someone.
Even just doing all of that is way too hard for them, these folks will often add.
They’ll even joke, too, about being resigned to seeing themselves head south instead of north come Judgment Day.
Oh yes, don’t we all know that the world harbors wrong ideas about our Lord and what His Son has done and will do for all of us?
We do.
And we know, from Jesus’ great commission in the book of Matthew, that we must work, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, to help reverse the world’s misunderstandings and unbelief.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost:
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:19-20).
Whew: Even with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that’s often a lot of work for us, simply because of Satan and the nature of us humans.
I’m willing to speculate that everyone reading knows, from experience, what I’m communicating:
You develop a friendship with a worldly person and you begin gently teaching and leading him or her into deeper understanding of God’s way.
But just as you seem to notice progress, Satan moves in with temptations and distractions that ultimately seem to sabotage the work.
I’ve had that happen so many times that I’d often feel frustrated and desperate for a lead from the Spirit.
It came a while back.
I was sitting at home, bemoaning in my head, the constant words of a certain relative, who always seemed so close to answering Jesus’ call.
The relative’s words were, in affect:
“I don’t need to come to Jesus. I’m a good person. God will bless me on what I have done.”
Suddenly, as those words clanged in my head that day, another familiar inner voice piped in: “Sometimes you can go as far as the Holy Spirit wants you to go in a particular situation.
“Then it becomes time to turn it over to Him and move on to another soul in need.”
Remembering all of that continues to help me in working for the Lord.
Remembering, too, how I was and how I don’t ever want to be again doesn’t hinder my godly efforts either.
Jesus said:
“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:18-19).
Ozzie Roberts – June , 2019
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