Not too quickly

Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD." But Samuel said to him, "I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!" 1 Samuel 15:25-26

Read that again, what goes through your head?

My first thought is why not, why not forgive him? But think about how many times you or someone else has sought forgiveness when they really weren't ready to change. We rarely change when we "see the light", when usually change when we "feel the heat". There are times when God uses us to turn up the thermostat or to push the accelerator to an impending crash.

Isn't that unloving?

No, in fact it's often one of the most loving things we can do. How? Well, you have to remember that the things of this earth are temporary, that's the start.

Next, you need to realize that God has given us "the ministry of reconciliation", what does that mean? Take some time and slowly read through 2 Corinthians 5:10-21

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

 11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It is so easy to get caught up in thinking everything is
about the here and now; about you and your wants; but it's not! It's about Him and the things he desires. He wants to be reconciled with
us and God calls us his ambassadors to reconcile men and women back to Him and the way of life He intended for us to live. And to do that sometimes, well, most of the time, He uses brokenness. Why? I'm not sure other than "pride" is a hard thing to break.

So, there are times when we need to use incredible discernment not to rescue someone too quickly. I've done it, and looking back it was my own pride, I wanted to be the one that saved them, but God wasn't finished with them.

Do you love someone enough to lose their friendship so that they might have an eternal friendship with God?

Are you rescuing someone too quickly?

Do you view anyone from a worldly point
of view?

Just something to think about…