Not Always Successful
Matthew 19:16-26
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
When we invest in someone to disciple them it is very disappointing and discouraging when they are not receptive, or after a time they walk away from the commitment to follow Jesus. Our efforts to take Jesus to the world are not always successful. So, what do we do? We keep right on sharing the love and grace of Jesus and we leave the results up to God.
The story from Matthew 19 about the rich young ruler shows us that not everyone responded positively to Jesus. If Jesus was not successful every time he gave the invitation to someone to follow him, then we shouldn’t expect to be successful 100% of the time. We need to be faithful in offering Jesus to a hurting and broken world and then we have to trust the Holy Spirit to work in that person’s life.
This week in our devotionals we are going to take a hard look at the story from Matthew 19 and we are going to consider what our response should be when we are not always successful in offering Jesus to the world.
