We’re working our way through the topic: How do you restore someone who has stumbled?
A few years ago a private detective was hired to search for a homeless man. The homeless man didn’t know it, but he was actually wealthy. His brother had died, and left his entire fortune to this homeless man.
Here’s what jumps out at me from this story: We act from our identity. Who we think we are determines how we experience life. If we understand ourselves to be homeless, we might—depending on our support system—sleep in the streets and eat our meals from garbage dumpsters. If we are wealthy, and we understand ourselves to be wealthy, we dine on the finest foods. We don’t eat from the garbage bin.
This is pivotal. This changes everything. If we are going to restore other people, we need to understand this.
When we know who we are, we lose our desire to eat from the garbage dumpster of sin. The rich inner wealth that Jesus provides (John 10:10) means that we get what we need from a much better source.
But if we don’t know how to tap into that rich inner wealth, we become like that homeless man who didn’t know he was rich. We find our meals in the garbage dumpster of sin.
If we are going to restore those who stumble, we need to find a way to help them tap into the rich inner wealth that Jesus provides. How do we do that?
More next time…
