Trusting God With Your Unsaved Loved Ones: Romans 9:1-5
“1) I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2) that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3) For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4) who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5) whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 9:1-5
Paul longed for His fellow countrymen to come to Jesus. He would have given his own life if it would have resulted in their salvation. But Paul had a problem, he went from being a promising young Pharisee to a hated trader when he came to personal saving faith in Jesus. (Read Philippians 3:4-11) He sincerely loved them and wanted to reach them for Jesus, but the hated both Jesus and the gospel, and everything Paul represented. They wanted him dead. As a result, Paul turned his attention to reaching the Gentiles.
So how does this relate to you and me? We all have people we love and long for them to come to Jesus, but they despise us and want nothing to do with us. They assign wrong motives to us and distort anything we say or try to do to reach them. It seems impossible.
I believe Paul adopted a great approach. He sought Jesus with all his might, walked through the open doors God placed before him, turned his countrymen over to God and loved everyone God sent his way.
God was faithful. He sent Peter and others to focus on reaching the Jewish people. In the same way, we need to trust God to send others to reach our estranged loved ones. Never doubt what God can do!
My motto has become to do my best and trust God and others to do the rest. None of us can carry the load of our unsaved loved ones alone. We need to turn them over to Jesus and trust His sovereignty to reach them. That is the very theme Paul moves into next.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
