This is the fourth part in a series talking about discipling
the generations, especially young people. We are looking at aspects of Jesus'
life and example of how He worked with His disciples. We’re going to look today
at Jesus’ intentional work of growing His disciples.
The first point I want to emphasize is Jesus intentionally challenged His disciples with tasks meant to
stretch and grow them. He taught them, equipped them, and then sent them
forth to serve various times, always bringing them back to debrief and make sense
of what they’d experienced. For a disciple to truly grow and mature, these
times of stretching are critical. It isn’t enough to simply feed your disciple
head knowledge. They must learn to apply the Word of God in their daily life.
Sometimes, life events will help them along without any involvement from you.
But other times, they may need encouragement from you to do something that will
challenge and strengthen their faith. Like Jesus, we must be sensitive to these
opportunities in the lives of those we have been called to train.
In addition, Jesus
used significant events to make impactful messages sink deep in their hearts.
Like the feeding of five thousand. Or the raising of Lazarus. Or the storm on
the sea. Crisis moments in our lives can become huge “ah ha!” moments of
spiritual truths. Sometimes a mentor is all we need to help us see the light.
When we are all wrapped up in our own busyness, it’s hard to truly be there for
a friend experiencing a crisis moment. But that is exactly what Jesus wants us
to do, not only to help them bear the burden, but also to point them towards
the light and truth of God and His everlasting Word.
Take a moment to prayerfully consider who in your life is
going through a crisis moment right now. How can you be an encouragement to
them today?
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