Don’t Jump Out Of The Making Process

       Someone once asked in a Bible Study group why it seemed easy for people who were once noted to have loved Jesus Christ and have served Him diligently to just up and leave serving Him. This elicited a lot of response from the group. But the consensus was that they were able to leave because they never actually loved God. Anyway, so as not to fall into the shoes of the elder brother of the Prodigal son, let us go back to the instructions of Christ concerning this matter. The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 4 that Jesus saw a couple of men fishing and mending their fishing nets; He told them to follow Him because He wants to ‘make’ them fishers of people! The first set, Peter and Andrew: “Immediately they left their nets and followed Him” (Matthew 4:20). The second set, James and John: “Immediately, they left their father and followed Him” (Matthew 4:22). These men promptly left what they were doing and followed; Jesus Christ then started the process of ‘making’ them into fishers of persons. For them to be a success in the process, they needed to leave whatever they were doing: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, and even his own life – he cannot be My disciple…In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say goodbye to all his possessions cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26 & 33). This means to put Jesus Christ first and above everything that concerns us including our lives! 

       Jesus Christ called us out of ‘things’ that we were doing in order to make us into fishers of people in whatever disciplines we have been purposed to operate in. The making process is on a daily basis and it spans every nook and cranny of our lives; at the same time it was never said it was going to be easy. Only a person that is completely sold out to the Person of Christ and His message will truly succeed in this. Do flash back to the nets of those men that were first called: The nets were not destroyed, buried or given away but were simply dropped. This meant, they can be returned to as we saw with Peter in John 21. After a process that took three and a half years of leaving all to follow Jesus Christ as His disciples, some of them still did not get it: “The 11 disciples travelled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw Him they worshipped but some doubted” (Matthew 28:16-17). It doesn’t matter how long the doubter has been serving, who they truly are will be eventually revealed, since the 'nets' were not destroyed; and such cannot please God: “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrew 11:6). 

    Friend, what shaking did you receive that you are singing a discordant tune in the congregation? Do you believe Him in spite of the situation and circumstances you find yourself? If you are quick to doubt God when things do not work your way, then you are not a true disciple but a doubter! God that called you is still ‘making’ you. Don’t jump out of the process so that you can fulfill the very purpose for which you were made. Remember: “Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, (though) the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the (victorious) God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, AMP). Remain in Him and He will make you into what you were created to be no matter the winds! God bless you.