Heart Change
Matthew 10:12-14 As
you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let
your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone
will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when
you leave that home or town.
ONE great challenge in our Christian lives is that we cannot
force people to confess Jesus as Lord, to receive his eternal peace. We can all
list people we’d love to change and be saved. Impatiently, helplessly and
hopelessly we wait for our friends and family members to say, “Yes!” to Jesus.
What do we do with the unfaithful? Do we keep after them or leave them alone?
As Jesus sent his
disciples to take the peace of the Gospel into their neighbors’ and possibly families’
homes, he told them not to spend time with those who rejected their teachings. To
“dust off your feet” in Jewish culture was to renounce any further connection
with one considered a heathen or separate from God.
Jesus’ instructions
are definite. He told them to go and do the work, to be faithful to the Gospel,
but if people reject their offers of peace, they must separate from that person
and move on.
Oftentimes we
spend a great deal of time trying to convince a friend, brother or neighbor of
Jesus’ eternal peace. Be careful you don’t waste your time and miss the
opportunity to speak to someone who will welcome the Gospel. If you are in
doubt about what to do in such a relationship, pray and seek God to show you
whether or not it’s time to move on.
LIFE Link: Offer Jesus’ peace, and trust the Spirit to
change hearts.
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