You Will NOT Be Left Behind!
Helping Mentees Deal with the Fear that God's Patience Will Run Out | Gospel-Centered Mentoring
When our children attended Texas public schools in the aughts, we were introduced to the “No Child Left Behind” program. The state government was committed to doing whatever it took to ensure that every child succeeded in school. Some teachers jokingly (and a bit sardonically) named it “No Child Left Untested” because they felt the program had devolved into an exam system so rigorous that many children would have panic attacks in the days leading up to the annual tests.
I have no expertise to comment on the effectiveness of that program. However, it reminds me of a misguided attitude many Christian mentees unknowingly adopt. They worry that, if they don’t test well enough in the spiritual and vocational realms of life, they will be “left behind” by God, that is, lose His blessing. This can lead to all manner of anxiety, guilt, shame, and worry.
Even if mentees don’t directly express this attitude, you may detect it in statements that reflect more of a karmic than gracious view of their Heavenly Father. “I realized why everything went wrong today; God was reminding me that I forgot to pray this morning.” “My life’s been a mess lately; how can I ask God for anything right now?”
God is not petty. He’s not in a spiritual tit-for-tat relationship with His Children. He’s not tucking His mighty pointer finger behind His thumb, eager for an excuse to flick their ears or, worse yet, propel them over the canyon edge into “take that, you ungrateful slug!”
Consider Malachi 3:6, “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” It seems deliberate that the Lord highlights Jacob here. That great patriarch was a spiritual mess for most of his life. His children were generally a spiritual mess. His descendants weren’t any better. They had all failed the righteousness test! And yet God had promised to love them and be their God, and He would not change His mind. He was always faithful, always merciful! They would not be left behind when they turned to him in humble repentance.
When your mentees were baptized, God made a promise. “You are mine; I am yours; and nothing in all creation can separate you from my love.” Not your failures, not your setbacks, not your bad days, not your sin can make Him change His mind.
When Mentees have fallen short of God’s will or not lived up to their goals and action steps, be careful to remind them that God’s love for them has not changed in the least. They are just as much His beloved children today as they were last week, as they will be in a million years. Their motivation to change need never come from fear of His rejection but rather from the abundance of His love for them. Who wouldn’t want to rest in Him fully and reflect Him faithfully when He loves us like that?