The divine mentor

Before we really get started in the meat of Wayne Cordeiro's book "The Divine Mentor," I wanted to share a few thoughts. 

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to teach adult  Sunday school on a variety of subjects: Church History, Doctrine, Grace, and Apologetics. The longer I teach, the more I realize how great a  responsibility this is. There is a responsibility to class members in front of me, but more importantly, there is the responsibility to not only honor God but to get to know Him better.

To be brutally honest, when I first looked at the book "Divine Mentor" and skimmed through it, there was a kind of "ho-hum" ness about it. I had a "been there, done that" attitude.

That attitude was just plain wrong. 

As I  READ the book rather than skimmed it, I began to notice the depth to which Cordeiro was calling all of us Christians. Whether young or old in the Faith, we have a "divine duty" to get to know God better. We get to know God better not through reading about Him or talking about Him with our Christian brothers and sisters. We don't get to know God better by going to church - my apologies to my pastors. 

We get to know God better by spending time with Him. We spend time with God through our thought lives. We spend time with God in our prayer life; not necessarily through rote or liturgical prayers  (although these do provide a "guide" of how to pray) but real prayers from our hearts using our own thoughts and words. We are to pray with praise and questions,  tears and laughter. Sometimes we will pray by praying back His Word that we know or have memorized, especially in the times when we don't have the words to speak. Most importantly, we get to know God better by letting Him talk directly to us when we open His Word - and listen. 

Don't think that just because these lessons are prepared each week Bible study and devotion time come easily. I  struggle just like many of you. It's a point of making the time to do it. What God keeps reminding me though is that the days that I have purposefully put aside some time to spend reading His Word and praying, He goes before me more mightily than I ever could in my own strength. Even if it's a short time of 10 or  15 minutes. 

There are days when I start my time but, because I haven't made it a  priority, the interruptions come. These interruptions can be "real" -  phone ringing, wife or child needing something - or it can be in the mind. Remember that the evil one comes to interfere with anything that would draw us closer to God. How many times have you begun reading or praying and a stray thought comes racing through your mind? You think, "Where did that thought come from?" and you are distracted.

As a fellow sojourner in this Christian walk, I've been exactly where you've been or are.

Here's a word of encouragement: Keep at it. Keep struggling. This is one of those disciplines that gets a bit easier the more it's practiced. I have a friend who, due to his work, gets up way earlier than I ever will because he works in New York City. He takes the train in. Before he leaves the house he makes the time to spend with his Lord. There are days when I receive a text from him with an encouraging word or a thought from his time in reading, study, and prayer. It's early, but I appreciate it. 

My friend is not only an encouragement to me, he's also a mentor. He has walked and struggled with issues and experiences in his life and has therefore been able to show me the mines in the minefield as I walk and struggle. Because he has chosen to hide God's Word in his heart, it's there ready and waiting for when trials arrive or when someone besides his family, co-workers, or me needs encouragement.

That's mentoring. We are mentored in order to mentor. With God, through His  Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, mentoring us we not only come to know Him a little bit better than the previous week, but we are also better prepared to bring Him Glory through our lives. 

Mentoring and being mentored is a life-long process. We never stop. Now that I think of it, Mentoring and Disciple-making go hand in hand. Our parents, whether biological, adoptive, or spiritual mentored us through our upbringing; from childhood through adulthood.  When we are born again, whether as children or teens or older adults, we have to go through a maturing process all over again. In turn, we will one day be used to lead someone to Christ, then mentor and encourage them for the purpose of bringing Glory to God so that they can then be used to bring another soul into His Kingdom. And the process continues.

This book, "The Divine Mentor" helps us to stay focused on God's desires for our lives as well as our ongoing personal relationship with Him. The pages of the Bible are rife with mentors: Leaders who have fallen and struggled back up; Poor and needy men and women who were "nothing" in the world's eyes yet persevered relying on God to be lifted high;  Religious people who were allowed to be tried and tested by evil or circumstances giving Glory to God in their victories.

The  short of all this is to ask the question, "What is my attitude when I - you - approach God and His Word?" Is it an attitude of duty? Or is it an attitude of humility with a desire to be mentored? Are we willing to be mentored by solid, maturing Believers - both alive with us now or found in the pages of Scripture - who wish to come alongside us to help us grow in our Walk? Are we ultimately willing to let the Holy   Spirit mentor us and guide us in ways that we cannot grasp? Ways that only He can provide.

The Holy Spirit wrote these 66 books of the Bible over about 1700 years. He highlighted men and women who struggled and depended on God and triumphed throughout its pages. God has them all assembled and waiting for us.

What should our goals be as we complete this study? I think we should have 2 goals. First, we should have learned to look at Bible reading and study differently. This Bible is a living letter written to us by a loving  God. God desires to Mentor us through every word and passage and person.  Second, we should be developing a desire to want to Mentor others. This  means asking God to place others in our lives who need someone who  will be willing to open their lives and their personal walk with the  Savior for the purpose of "showing them the way." To be willing to sit in another part of the church and put our arm around another person who needs God's love or who needs help in finding His Wisdom.

In the end, "The Divine Mentor" is a book that helps to remind us that all we have, all we are, and all we can be is determined by our reliance on our Divine Mentor. As Divine Mentoring grows, we are able to better understand what we believe and why we believe it. We are better able to defend our faith and therefore become better witnesses for Christ.  

Divine Mentoring also works to "reset" our hearts and minds so that we want to witness and share our faith in order to direct others in our spheres of influence to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So when we make the effort to spend the time to be mentored by God Himself, He will receive much Glory and we will be satisfied.