Three different times this week it's happened. No joke, three different people! That's how I know the enemy is working, working, working and scared, scared, scared!
Three times just this week I was told, by well meaning folks, but still, people who don't know me at all. "You just don't have enough faith..." Another one I love. "You're a baby Christian."
Friends, please be careful. Your words mean something. Your words have significance. For a baby Christian, those words might have stung, wounded, and caused me to shake. For a baby Christian, those words could send a person running for the hills. Don't you understand, a baby Christian has truly just gotten enough faith to step over the edge into the wild ride with the Lord. They're not deep enough in the water yet to be drowning. They're not deep enough to not run. Brothers and sisters, be careful please! You don't know, but that baby Christian could just be dipping their toes in to check the temperature, but here comes all the long standing, lifetime believers to tell them about how weak and small they are. The baby believer could have just gotten enough courage to believe that maybe they won't be judged for who they have been. They could have just decided to leave the world and follow the Lord. And the world is accepting! The world is open armed! Anything that the world and sin can do to embrace a sinner, they will do it! But the problem is that is doesn't last forever. Still, misery loves company. Sin is so accepting of sin. This baby believer could have just gotten the courage to step forward.
And then here come the saints. "You're a baby." "You don't have enough faith." Brothers and sisters, this is not loving. This is cruel! This is not accepting. This is condemning! This is not welcoming. This would cause any baby believer to run! Please brothers and sisters, be so cautious! Tread so carefully!
God has called us to go and make disciples, brothers and sisters. That means stepping into peoples lives and ministering exactly where they are. Baby or lifetime believer. Wounded or healed. Hurt by sin or saved from sin. It's not our place to judge them. It's only our place to point them to Jesus.
Five years ago, that would have caused me to run. Praise the Lord, they are wrong. I am not a "baby" and I do have "enough faith". Please don't judge your fellow believers journey. You were there once too. God loves all of us exactly where we are!
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