Have Grace and Time
Over the years I meet many new believers that had a huge excitement for there faith. But sometimes I saw them again a few years later and in some way they almost lost their faith. There are many reasons why that can happen, but I believe one of it is the use of grace and the time we give the person.
Let me explain it with this example: Imagine your whole body is surrounded by a thick layer of ice. Now the sun comes out and touches the top part of your body. Slowly the ice starts to melt and you are free. But it takes time for the ice to melt. It doesn’t help if we as bystanders stand next to you and scream that you are a terrible person and that you should have not been in the ice in the first place. What does it do to you? It lets you forget about all the melting that already took place on your body and you might move into the shadow ashamed for the ice instead of celebrating that the sun freed you.
I think that is sometimes true for us as Christians as well. When we meet new believers we expect them to be sin free. We expect them to get rid of all the bad in their life in 2 hours. But reality is it takes time. We need to give people time to grow. Of course we don’t want them to be stuck in there sin for the rest of their lives, but does it really help if we tell them all the time all the things they do wrong. Most of the time they will be discouraged and would actually stop sharing with us. But what about we start to encourage them in the things they do right? What about we have grace with them and give them time to grow?
It will as an example do 2 things:
- When we encourage in what they do right, it shows them that we really care about them and our relationship with that person will go deeper. We actually celebrate their successes with them. That will grow trust and open up doors for us in the future to speak into their life and to help them grow but it also gives us another great friend.
- When we walk alongside people and have grace with them in times of slip up, we show them more of Jesus and how He deals with us. It is also a good reminder for each one of us that we make mistakes as well.
I am not saying with that that we should ignore all sin in the lives of new believers. No what I am saying is to help them grow but in a way that actually helps them to grow. We need to learn to help people, but in the right time. We need to give people time to grow, and that is different for every person. How do we know the right time? We know it by letting the Holy Spirit guide us. Let Him guide you and be a part in raising up strong followers of Jesus.
Hey our friend
We hope you had a wonderful week. Looking just at the first 2 weeks of this year I am just amazed how much God keeps increasing our favor in this work by just opening greater doors.
Our new DTS Students arrived which is amazing. We look forward to see how God will use them in North beach as well as later on in there hometowns. Please keep them in your Prayers. Please also keep praying for the safety of the police in North Beach.
Thank you for standing with us in this work!
God bless you
Markus and Jen