A faithful man of God

We had a visit yesterday from an old friend, and his lovely wife. Sonya and I have known him for more than forty years, since the very beginning of each of our walks with our Lord.

As I sat there in conversation with him, around the scriptures and the deeper things of God of course, I was thanking my Lord for this faithful man’s input into both of our lives right from when we were saved back when we were in our twenties. This man, now in his eighties, and very near to the end of his own journey on this earth, was one of the first to show both Sonya and I that, above all else, God wanted personal relationship with us.

In my novel, Going to Sophie, when Jesus was visiting Jesse at the healing cave, I hint at this wonderful truth when Jesus said to Jesse, “As you may have read, I am all about relationship. That was the joy that was set before me, you know.”

After our faithful old friend left yesterday, I was reflecting on my own walk with God over the span of my adult life. Like Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14, my old friend would be aghast if he knew how much I looked up to him in my first few years as a young christian. Although I did walk with my Lord right from the start, hearing from Him for myself, nevertheless, as a young christian, I still hoped to be like the man of God I looked up to, who always seemed so much closer to God than me. I too longed to be a man of God. Little did I know at that point that this was how God already saw me.

Of course, without a doubt, it’s good to hear from those gifted as teachers, and very necessary to have mature men of God walk beside us as mentors. My old friend, a true mentor, would listen to me, give advice, but then always point me back to hear from God for myself. So, I soon learnt and embodied the precious truth that I am already a son, accepted in the Beloved.

By God’s grace, this is something I have always endeavoured to do, with whoever God has sent my way. There is nothing I love more than to encourage others that God’s love is drawing them, calling to them, to come closer, to enjoy sweet fellowship with him, and to strengthen them to believe that they are loved and accepted.

This is something that my Lord taught me through an old faithful man of God, who walked beside me, but who then got quickly out of the way, lest he become the focus, rather than his Lord.

Now, that is a faithful man of God.