Sure, everybody needs Jesus, but that’s not always where it starts.

I wouldn’t try to start training an injured animal until I could successfully bring relief to its suffering.  In the same way, if I want to be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ, I first have to be able to recognize the immediate needs of someone who asks for help over any craving I might have to share God’s Good News with them.

That’s just common sense.  Right?

Then why are some of us so eager to dump our religious truck on another’s suffering as the first step in its solution?  The reasons would vary, of course, but I often remind myself that immaturity is likely to distort any rational thought process.   I speak from personal experience.

On the other hand, the members of a spiritually mature congregation of Jesus Christ recognize immediacy as something critical to constructive problem solving.

Yet, some of us just don’t get it.

It hard to expect the man who just lost his job to respond positively to an invitation to next week’s Bible study or the Wednesday night Couple’s Focus Group.

His focus is on survival and he’s looking for a timely solution.  The odds are he’s not even able to think about God right now, let alone ask Him for anything.  While prayer, fellowship and personal growth are essential to helping him get back on his feet in the long term, he needs food, money and attention in real time.

Mature Christian love seeks out and fulfills the urgency of genuine need.  It doesn’t patronize, misguide or coddle.

It blends an immediate, practical solution with a Biblical path which will help to insure its success.