Dealing With Our Unbelieving loved Ones
Some people are blessed to have everyone in their families to be born again and true followers of Christ. But some of us are from families with mixed races, including the born again, the church 'goer', the pagan, and the atheist :).
As a result, we constantly wish every member of our families would be born again, but sweetheart, if that could ever be possible, we can't do it by our power. We have to realize that nobody makes a man truly born again if not God Himself. Though we have a role to play, which is to continually preach and pray for them, but that doesn't guarantee an automatic repentance.
I had to learn this in a hard way kind of. My dad falls into the pagan category, doesn't go to church, lives the opposite of what the bible says. To much worsen the case, from the onset, we have never been on the friendly terms, so it became very difficult to preach Christ to Him. One day, a quarrel happened between the both of us, and I called him a sinner to his face, you can imagine what happened thereafter. I got beaten blue black, it was Christ who spared my life that night. And ever since then, when it comes to Him, I don't preach, I don't even tell him anything about Christ.
The Holy Spirit made me realize that it is not my duty to convict a man of his sins. Instead, for a loved one who is living in sin, all we should do is to keep praying. We can also tell such person about Christ indirectly, through our own behavior and attitude. For now, that is the method I'm using to preach Christ to my dad, by being Christ-like, friendly (Jesus was friends with sinners).
Moreover, do not force Christ on them, because if you do, you would end up being frustrated, and that wouldn't be nice. May God grant us the wisdom to deal with the unbelievers in our families in Jesus name.
Shalom.
As a result, we constantly wish every member of our families would be born again, but sweetheart, if that could ever be possible, we can't do it by our power. We have to realize that nobody makes a man truly born again if not God Himself. Though we have a role to play, which is to continually preach and pray for them, but that doesn't guarantee an automatic repentance.
I had to learn this in a hard way kind of. My dad falls into the pagan category, doesn't go to church, lives the opposite of what the bible says. To much worsen the case, from the onset, we have never been on the friendly terms, so it became very difficult to preach Christ to Him. One day, a quarrel happened between the both of us, and I called him a sinner to his face, you can imagine what happened thereafter. I got beaten blue black, it was Christ who spared my life that night. And ever since then, when it comes to Him, I don't preach, I don't even tell him anything about Christ.
The Holy Spirit made me realize that it is not my duty to convict a man of his sins. Instead, for a loved one who is living in sin, all we should do is to keep praying. We can also tell such person about Christ indirectly, through our own behavior and attitude. For now, that is the method I'm using to preach Christ to my dad, by being Christ-like, friendly (Jesus was friends with sinners).
Moreover, do not force Christ on them, because if you do, you would end up being frustrated, and that wouldn't be nice. May God grant us the wisdom to deal with the unbelievers in our families in Jesus name.
Shalom.
Comments