MENTORING: an investment in someone's life
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
It is yet another one of those early morning times for me today at about 1:30 a.m. where I cannot sleep because of the things that roll through my mind. I have just found out that someone that I have invested in mentoring over the last few months is dropping out of that relationship because they have been hurt...not by me , but by life in such a way that they feel they need to withdraw from what they started with in Christ.
I have had disappointments like this before, and it does hurt a bit when I realize that the person was not far enough along after a year to stand in Christ on their own or be given responsibilities in Christ Jesus that I thought they were ready for. I want to address situations like that for those of us who take on a mentoring role with people. I could have thought that it was a fault of my own that someone might turn back away from growth just a few years ago, but God has taught me that there will always be those who turn away sorrowful even though they may have wanted to serve God at one point because they were unwilling to continue to go forward with their sacrifice of self to God's control. In Jesus own ministry He found people like the rich young ruler who turned away because he had too much to loose in following Christ. There are many many more in this world who cannot or are not willing to transform their own lives to fit into the call of Christ.
While it is difficult for us to run up against this kind of response to the message of Christ given through us to people it is important for us to realize that our job as mentors to any one else is to first of all be truthful and completely controlled by the Holy Spirit in what we teach and share with others. The failure or the success in what we do is not ours but theirs in accepting or rejecting what Christ has given them. We are merely conduits to these people where Jesus Spirit gives them opportunity to respond or not to respond. Neither the victory or the failure is ours as long as we do God's bidding. I look at this much the same way as I do some of the parables of talents that the king had given his servants and then had gone away for a time to see what they would do with them. Many will get to a point where they stop trying to reach out for opportunity to grow and they get fearful and bury what they have. The results of that are always on the person who responded poorly, and not on God or on the chance they had been given to increase.
There are many times when we make an investment in someones life when it does not work out, but we do not have the option to stop investing in someone else because only in investing do we have the chance to increase what God's Spirit has bestowed upon us...that is the chance to help someone grow unto maturity in Jesus. I believe that is why in the world mentoring someone no longer makes any sense...it takes a lot of investment , time and love, and sometimes it fails, and that can hurt. You never know who may try to start that journey again with you or someone else and then succeed. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
It is yet another one of those early morning times for me today at about 1:30 a.m. where I cannot sleep because of the things that roll through my mind. I have just found out that someone that I have invested in mentoring over the last few months is dropping out of that relationship because they have been hurt...not by me , but by life in such a way that they feel they need to withdraw from what they started with in Christ.
I have had disappointments like this before, and it does hurt a bit when I realize that the person was not far enough along after a year to stand in Christ on their own or be given responsibilities in Christ Jesus that I thought they were ready for. I want to address situations like that for those of us who take on a mentoring role with people. I could have thought that it was a fault of my own that someone might turn back away from growth just a few years ago, but God has taught me that there will always be those who turn away sorrowful even though they may have wanted to serve God at one point because they were unwilling to continue to go forward with their sacrifice of self to God's control. In Jesus own ministry He found people like the rich young ruler who turned away because he had too much to loose in following Christ. There are many many more in this world who cannot or are not willing to transform their own lives to fit into the call of Christ.
While it is difficult for us to run up against this kind of response to the message of Christ given through us to people it is important for us to realize that our job as mentors to any one else is to first of all be truthful and completely controlled by the Holy Spirit in what we teach and share with others. The failure or the success in what we do is not ours but theirs in accepting or rejecting what Christ has given them. We are merely conduits to these people where Jesus Spirit gives them opportunity to respond or not to respond. Neither the victory or the failure is ours as long as we do God's bidding. I look at this much the same way as I do some of the parables of talents that the king had given his servants and then had gone away for a time to see what they would do with them. Many will get to a point where they stop trying to reach out for opportunity to grow and they get fearful and bury what they have. The results of that are always on the person who responded poorly, and not on God or on the chance they had been given to increase.
There are many times when we make an investment in someones life when it does not work out, but we do not have the option to stop investing in someone else because only in investing do we have the chance to increase what God's Spirit has bestowed upon us...that is the chance to help someone grow unto maturity in Jesus. I believe that is why in the world mentoring someone no longer makes any sense...it takes a lot of investment , time and love, and sometimes it fails, and that can hurt. You never know who may try to start that journey again with you or someone else and then succeed. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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