By: J. Meyer
Jesus began His public ministry in Nazareth. It was
the town where He grew up, where all His close friends and family lived―where
any one of us would have expected plenty of hugs and hand claps of
encouragement. But for Jesus, it
was not a good experience.
The crowd was happy with Jesus’
teachings to a point, but when His words became a little more direct and
corrective, the Bible says they became so enraged that they actually tried to
kill Him (see Luke 4:28,29). Jesus didn’t even try to defend the validity of
His ministry. Verse 30 says, “But passing through their midst, He went on His
way.”
Now, the next place He went was
Capernaum, where He preached to large crowds, performed miracles and cast out
devils from among the people. And they were just so happy. They said, “Stay
with us, Jesus. This is Your spot!” Well, who wouldn’t want to stay where
everybody loves and appreciates you? But Jesus didn’t hang around there either
because He knew there were others who needed to hear His message.
There’s a major lesson to be learned
here. See, Jesus wasn’t moved by people’s rejection nor was He moved by their
acceptance. He was moved by the Spirit of God.
If you can learn how to follow God
whether you’re accepted or rejected, you’re well on your way to fulfilling the
call of God on your life to reach out to others.
What
to Do When Others Reject You
Have you ever tried to help someone who
didn’t really want to be helped out of their situation? You know, we tend to
think that if we could just explain things a little more clearly or be a little
bit better witness, they could be helped. But honestly and truly, we’ve got to
know when to break free from the burden of false responsibility.
In Matthew 10, Jesus was sending out His
disciples, and He told them that if they went to a town and the people didn’t
accept them, they should shake the dust off their feet and go to the next town.
What does that mean for Christians
today? It means if someone doesn’t want to be helped, we can continue to pray
on their behalf, but we are not obligated to try and change them.
The world is full of hungry, hurting,
needy people who would love to get any little bit of love and encouragement you
have to give them. So when one person rejects you, don’t let that stop you.
Just do what Jesus did. Move on to the next person and the next person until somebody
wants what you’ve got.
What
to Do When Others Ask Too Much
Now, there are going to be others in
your life who love and appreciate you and won’t ever want you to leave their
side because of who you are and what you do for them. And it’s tempting to stay
around people like that because they genuinely care about you. But if you
choose to stay in that same small circle, you won’t be able to reach out to
others in need―and “on others” is where God wants our focus to be.
I think it would absolutely set the
church on fire if every Christian would realize they have what it takes to make
a difference in the lives of others.
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