All of us, well at least I am, are a bit competitive. We like to go with a winner. If you play fantasy football you choose players who you think will do better than others. No one in that arena picks people that they think will lose.
It is the same with our families. We work with our kids early to help them get a head start. We do all that we can for them to be successful in school and in the extracurricular activities in which they participate.
Who wouldn’t like to have a player like Johnny Football on their team? He is gifted, studies the game, works in the off season to get better, continues to improve, and is driven to do so. No coach wants to have to fight to instill those qualities in a player who does not have them; it is a lot of work. It is much easier to work with the gifted.
If we work with people in their walk with God the same thing seems to apply. We would much rather engage with those who are eager to follow Christ, to dig into His Word, to share their faith, etc. Problem is those folks are a relatively small percentage of those who present as believers. So we might conclude that we should only work with those who really are fired up. Problem is the Scripture does not allow us to do that.
Hebrews 12:12 – 13 the writer exhorts us to work hard at helping those who struggle to do better in following Christ. If you think about it that was the role of many of the prophets. They spoke to the sin of Israel in order to draw them closer to God. In a word they were resisted. So was Christ. So were the 12. It is not a fun, glorious assignment. It is ours just the same.
It is the same with our families. We work with our kids early to help them get a head start. We do all that we can for them to be successful in school and in the extracurricular activities in which they participate.
Who wouldn’t like to have a player like Johnny Football on their team? He is gifted, studies the game, works in the off season to get better, continues to improve, and is driven to do so. No coach wants to have to fight to instill those qualities in a player who does not have them; it is a lot of work. It is much easier to work with the gifted.
If we work with people in their walk with God the same thing seems to apply. We would much rather engage with those who are eager to follow Christ, to dig into His Word, to share their faith, etc. Problem is those folks are a relatively small percentage of those who present as believers. So we might conclude that we should only work with those who really are fired up. Problem is the Scripture does not allow us to do that.
Hebrews 12:12 – 13 the writer exhorts us to work hard at helping those who struggle to do better in following Christ. If you think about it that was the role of many of the prophets. They spoke to the sin of Israel in order to draw them closer to God. In a word they were resisted. So was Christ. So were the 12. It is not a fun, glorious assignment. It is ours just the same.
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