Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matt 4:19
Jesus in this verse tells us what to do, i.e., follow Him. He also tells us what He will make of us, i.e., fishers of men. Notice how the follow-me part is an instruction and the I-will-make-you-fishers-of-men part is a promise. If you follow Him faithfully, He makes good use of you and your life. He knows how to use people as long as they are faithful followers. He is on the look for followers who “live by faith and not by sight” 2 Cor 5:7
I have no reason to believe that most of the Bible writers had a Bible in mind when they wrote the Bible. When Paul wrote the letter to Timothy, for example, I don’t see any indication that Paul intended it to be a Bible. But God had a Bible in mind. God had the best selling book of all time in mind. Yes, according to the Guinness book of records, the Bible is the best selling book of all time. But Paul does not even know what best selling means. I can’t wait to explain it to him when we get to heaven. Paul was simply and faithfully trying to take care of Timothy, his son. He was just being a good follower of Christ. God saw the faithfulness and made a Bible out of it.
We live in a society where success is valued too much. As Christians, however, we need to always keep in mind that God values faithfulness more than success. He is not impressed at all by our success. Mother Teresa is credited for saying that we are called to be faithful and not successful. How true!
Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit. Success is not. Ironically, success is the fruit of faithfulness.
Blessings,
The Cyber Evangelist |