Dear Friends,
I have a lot of wonderful colleagues in ministry encourage me along life’s journey. One of them is Dalyn Helbling, Pastor of the First Church of God in Bastrop, LA. Below is a devotional thought he wrote that I found helpful. I hope you do, too!
Blessings to you,
Bro. Ray
Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
A high school student deliberately flunked an examination. When her father learned about it and scolded her, she said, “Dad, students who get all A’s walk the hallways alone. I can’t stand being alone.”
Nobody likes to feel isolated. There was a pastor in the Midwest who was well-loved by his fellow pastors in the area. Then he started having great success in growing the church, and attendance reached over a thousand. Suddenly, he said, his fellow pastors started treating him differently, as if they hated him.
We live in a world where doing your best might cause you to walk alone. That’s the price you pay to do the most you can for Jesus Christ. If you search the Scriptures, you’ll find that the people who did great things in partnership with the Lord were those who often walked alone in earthly relationships.
Moses was an “A” student in God’s eyes. But look how often he had to stand alone in the midst of his huge wayward flock. Elijah also felt it when he cried to God, “I only am left.” Being apart from others was one of the hardest things Jesus ever went through, when He could not even get his sleeping disciples to pray with Him in Gethsemane.
We live in a world where people are afraid to be different, afraid to be individuals, afraid to travel to the beat of a different drum. But if you will obey Romans 12:2, I believe God will reward you with special experiences and major answers to prayer.
And if you’re concerned about isolation, remember that only applies to human relationships. The Lord is “with you always, even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)
-ddh
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