Changing other people

When we are serving the Lord by preaching the Word, doing Sunday School or Youth Ministry or evangelizing people we have one ultimate goal: to change people. A good preacher preaches because he wants his congregation to grow. A good youth minister wants his teens to become closer to the Lord. An evangelist engages people because he wants people to meet the Lord.
If we minister without wanting people to change, then we better go for a hike.

The big question is: How do we change people? Or better: How does God change people? Why do we sometimes minister to people for years and there is still no visible change?

In this fascinating story, there are some things which we can learn from the Centurion.

1.) Approach Jesus.
"A centurion came to him". We need to intentionally go to Jesus and pray for people if we want to change them. All too often I go to people, help them in my way and speak my own words. However, we cannot change people in our strength, only God can touch other people's hearts.

2.) Tell Jesus what's the problem
"My servant lies at home paralyzed." Although Jesus knows our problems, it's always good to lay out the situation in front of him.

3.) Care for people God entrusted to you
"My servant lies at home". God entrusts every Christian with people we should care for, pray for, serve and love. This can be co-workers, employes, students, kids, siblings etc. When they have problems, we should not leave them on their own. No one forced the centurion to care for this little man. He could have just let him cry and die. Do we take action for the people around us?

4.) Have compassion and sympathy
"suffering terribly". The centurion knew the sufferings of his servant. We should mourn with those who mourn and remember those who suffer as if we're ourselves suffering (Hebrews 13:2). We need to have a great concern for people, driving us to help them. We have lame / paralyzed people everywhere in our societies. People hesitating, people losing their courage, passive Christians... The question is do we care (enough) for these people?

5.) Be humble
"I do not deserve to have you come under my roof." Keep in mind that we're speaking about a Roman centurion talking with a small Jewish man. He could have just answered Jesus question (shall I heal him) with Yes.
When we want to change other people, there's a great danger that we consider ourselves superior, because we are the helper and they are the helpless. Dealing with people, we need to be reminded constantly to be humble and to express our dependance to God. 

6.) Know Jesus' authority and power
"But just say the word, and my servant will be healed."
When we pray for people, we need to strongly believe in God's power. If we ask with doubts, there is little chance that something changes. We need to know Almighty God and believe that He is able and willing to help and change people. Prayers without faith are ineffective.

7.) Use your own life as an example
"For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me." The centurion compared His authority with Jesus' authority. We too should keep our eyes open and learn from situations in our life and draw spiritual conclusions from them. Reminding ourselves of God in everyday situations is a great help to keep the focus.  

Created 9 months ago