Dr. D's Devotional
Title: Discipleship 23
by Dennis Reschke
The final step of mentoring is to release them. They
must be released to reproduce. The church is full of mature Christians that
have not been given permission, instruction, or commission to be released
and its not right. The Great Commission demands it. We must empower the
next generation.
How does spiritual fathering and mothering work? Pray,
pray, pray. Paul says in Galatians 4:19 the he "labors in the pains of childbirth"
for them. This was spoken in the context of prayer. Jesus is at the right
hand of the Father right now interceding, not only for the world in general
but for us individually (Rom 8:34). Pray that they will run to God and hunger
for God's word. Pray that they will learn to resist temptation and flee
from it. Be transparent about it. Tell them you are praying this. This leads
to intimacy. If a father is free to reveal his true feelings, his son learns
to open up too.
Point them to Jesus. Tell them they are accountable to
God. Mentors do not tell their disciples what to do, but they do explain
the situation fully to them. People need to make their own decisions. Learn
to ask vital questions. Don't think you have to solve every problem. Fathering
is not to meet every need, but to be sure every need is met. The Good Samaritan
left and entrusted the wounded man to the innkeeper. He did not meet every
need of the wounded man, but made sure his every need was attended to. Maintain
proper boundaries: a relationship goes downhill when two people lean too
much on each other rather than the Lord. Make it easy to get out of the
relationship. A person may have multiple spiritual fathers/mothers, each
inputting into a different area of their life. Men should mentor men, and
women women, as modeled in Titus 2:2-4. "That the older men be sober, grave,
temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women likewise,
that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given
to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children". The reason
for this is that relationships fast become intimate friendships. The deeply
shared Christian love can be misinterpreted, leading to inappropriate emotional
and physical attachments. Abstain from all appearance of evil (1Thes 5:22).
A husband and wife team, though, is completely appropriate (e.g. Aquilla
and Priscilla with Apollos).
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