Jesus called out to Simon and Andrew,“Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.
Mark 1:16-17 NLT
I love the way Jesus worked because it’s so different from the way I would have gone about things. Jesus came up to the fishermen and immediately told them the work he wanted them to do. My approach, by way of contrast, would have been to spend some days chilling with Simon and Andrew getting to know them and building up a good relationship. And then after a few days in a calm moment I would have subtly suggested that if they didn’t mind it would be great if they could do some recruiting for me. Not Jesus. He calls them and immediately gives them a job!
We learn something very important from this. It’s that following Jesus and recruiting others belong together. We all have different gifts, but all of us can contribute to inviting others to follow him. Inviting friends to a meeting, encouraging them to listen to Premier, giving them a booklet about Jesus, and telling them our own story. In 101 ways we can all play our part in helping others to meet Jesus for themselves.
The most important way of encouraging people to follow Jesus is through the lives that we lead, and the example we set. I used to live in India and amongst the many people selling things in our local bus station was a man who sold toothpaste and who promised that if you bought his brand your teeth would be perfect and never let you down. The only problem was that this dear man didn’t have a single tooth in his head! He had the message but nothing to back it up. Let’s encourage people to follow Jesus and especially make sure that we’ve got a life which lives it out.
QUESTION
In what way are you going to help people to follow Jesus today?
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for inviting us to follow you. Help us today to pass on that invitation to others. Amen.
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