Monday, July 18



Matthew 19:16
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”



Reflection
There are some interesting details about this story
of Jesus and the rich young man.  This individual
came to Jesus.  He was open and receptive.  He asked Jesus the question about eternal life.  He wanted to know how to enter God’s kingdom.  However, even though he wanted spiritual answers and his goal seemed worthy, to gain eternal life; he came to Jesus with an agenda.

Unfortunately, sometimes the people we disciple
have an agenda of which we are not aware.  No
matter how sincere we are about our discipling efforts sometimes we cannot overcome that agenda.  Most
of the time we don’t even know there is an agenda.  Does that mean we shouldn’t attempt to disciple
others into the way of Jesus?  No, we should continue taking Jesus into the world and then we let the Holy Spirit do what it can and we simply accept the results.

Reflect on a time when you were disappointed by a person you were trying to disciple.  Why shouldn’t
we be discouraged by those situations?