12/08/19 Practical Discipleship: Restoring the Fallen

READING: Galatians 5:22-25, 6:1

Sometimes your disciples will make decisions that break your heart. You’ll want to help them avoid mistakes, but all you can do is watch as they walk in the wrong direction. They turn to sin, sin grabs them, and they lose the battle. At times (as I’ve written here), you’ll weep over their sin more than they do. Discipling then becomes agonizing, and it’s easy to wonder if it’s worth it.

Galatians 6:1, however, tells us what we need to do: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” As mentors who ought to be walking in the Spirit, we’re responsible to reach out to the fallen with humility and tenderness—all the while being aware that we, too, could fall. God then graciously uses us to restore a brother or sister in Christ.

In essence, we’re to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit as we help others do the same. Is there someone in your life that you need to help restore today?

PRAYER: “Lord, give me a spirit of gentleness and a willingness to reach out to the fallen.”

TOMORROW’S READING: Ezekiel 46-48, 1 John 4:1-19

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