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A short time later, another young man
began coming to church. He had a difficult
background and was dealing with mental
issues and suicidal thoughts. I began to
meet with him, and we went through the
Gospel, and he claimed to be saved. We
continued through other discipleship
topics, and I thought we were making
headway. I thought, “I have another chance to do
this right!” Sadly, after a few months of
discipleship, he stopped meeting with me.
He would not answer my calls or emails,
and he would not come to church. I have
only seen him once since, and he seems to
have no interest in letting God change his
life. I was so sure that I could help him,
and once again, I thought I had failed.
live for the Lord. He has been more
faithful to church and is growing. It has
been a blessing and an encouragement
to see what God has done in his life.
God continued to work in the first young
man’s life even though I could not see it!
God’s Word does not return void, but it
accomplishes the work God intends.
In ministry, we ought not measure our
success by our expectations, but we must
leave the results up to God. We must
simply walk in the Spirit, allow Him to
use us in His way, and depend upon Him
to do the work that we cannot do. Did my
ministry efforts produce results or failure?
That remains to be seen when we get to
heaven. W
I knew that it was up to these individuals
to choose to live for the Lord. I knew only
God could produce real change in
their hearts. I knew this in theory,
but it took discouragement
to help me understand
this in practice. I became
discouraged at my apparent
failure and lack of results
with these two young
men. Through these
experiences, I learned
the hard way to leave the
results of ministry efforts
up to God. True success
in ministry is determined
by the Lord and not by
what I perceive to be a
success. One Sunday night just a
few months ago, the first
young man unexpectedly
showed up to our service.
He said with tears in his
eyes, “I want to live for
the Lord.” He had decided
to stop living in sin and
Nate & Christy Minion
Cara, Ezra, Vera, Emma
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