The whole point of lifting weights is to build muscles.
What if the spotter felt sorry for the lifter and grabbed the bar to help out… it would be a complete mission fail!
How about faith muscles? How are they built?
When someone we care about is going through something hard all to often we want to be able to help out. We think surely there is a way to rescue the person from what they are dealing with.
Now don’t get me wrong. Some times there is a legit need for being rescued and God comes through, but more often people are just experiencing a natural consequence of building faith muscles.
Faith only counts if there is risk!
If there is no risk, there is no real need for faith. Most of the visions God gives people to pursue are God sized. If they were easy people wouldn’t really be building any new muscles.
When we were children our parents helped us tie our shoes, but then they taught us to do it ourselves and eventually even expected us to buy our own shoes.
Growing up is like that.
There is more and more responsibility and there are more and more adventures available.
If we look at faith adventure as something to be avoided, we will miss out on what could be if we accepted responsibility and built our own personal faith muscles.
When we look to rescue people from their circumstances instead of cheering them on as they walk through whatever they are facing we risk the loss of their building personal faith muscles.
They may make decisions about their future we would not make.
They may have gotten themselves into a pickle from past decisions that were not the best.
Either way we have the choice to walk in relationship with them and process with them whatever happens OR we can TELL them what to do and hold them back because of our own preferences.
Is there someone you need to stop rescuing?
Is there something you need to move forward in faith with even if others don’t understand?
Cindy Scott is a professional Life Coach, Coach Trainer and founder of Bridges Coaching. She has her roots in Elim - is an EBI grad and is ordained through Elim Fellowship along with holding a Masters in Ministry and Lifeforming Leadership Coach Training Certification. Cindy loves helping people or teams build bridges to what could be through the coaching paradigm and/or helping them understand their destiny by design!
She and her husband Eric, Care Pastor at Elim Gospel Church, have four grown children, enjoy biking on the Erie Canal Trail and love a leisurely trip to Starbucks.