Shepherding: A Sister in Need

As a family we visited a sister's family for home meeting. My wife and I and the sister were in fellowship when she opened up many of her concerns and the experiences she has been through. It was amazing how the Lord worked on her and how she has grown in life as manifested in the way she look at life and face issues of the day with the Lord in fellowship with the fellow members of the Body of Christ.

Though her concerns were genuine and the experiences she has been through are tough, the Lord's shepherding care was bountiful. Comparing and contrasting with how she was a year ago, there are a lot to praise the Lord for. The ministry of the word, the prayer of the saints and the fellowship of the Body is realistically powerful. The divine seed sown into her as the word is growing and bearing fruits. Praise the Lord!

Isaiah 58:9-11 Then you will call, and Jehovah will answer; / You will cry out, and He will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from your midst, / The pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness,

And if you draw out your soul to the hungry / And satisfy the desires of the afflicted; / Then your light will rise in the darkness, / And your gloom will be like midday;

And Jehovah will guide you continually, / And satisfy your soul in the dry times, / And strengthen your bones; / And you will be like a watered garden, / And like a spring of water, / Whose waters do not deceive.   

As we pray-read these verses, the Lord enlightened us to deal with certain matters, especially prevalent among the weaker vessels; "if you remove your yoke from your midst, the pointing of fingers and the speaking of wickedness,"  then, the blessings will follow as in the aforementioned verses. All evil speaking and backbiting should be dealt with, giving no ground to the enemy. This is one of the frequent attack point of the enemy. Unconsciously, it is so easy to speak or comment loosely about another. This leaks life and stops the Lord's blessing. This may not seem to be a gross sin apparently but delving deep down, it is rooted on the indwelling sin undealt with, even many times, worse than manifested sins.

Many concerns brought out were all related to speaking, words not seasoned with salt.  Colossians 4:6, Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Another sister speaking words not according to the above Word is the main cause of trouble the said sister was undergoing. Nevertheless, this "mistake" was also used by the Lord to deal with a relationship tending to go beyond the boundary of being a sister in the Lord.

With whomever I am ministering to, my words should be seasoned with salt, always with grace, for the building up of one another. This is a lesson I am learning and still am learning. Our shepherding a sister in need was by just listening to whatever she had to pour out, the main cause of all the troubles were due to words spoken not in grace to her by some others. She had to release herself even with tears. After all the speakings and reading, we all prayed together. That's the best way we could shepherd; in listening, fellowship, reading the word of God and prayer. That was also a good experience for me and my wife, to coordinate in shepherding, as a couple. Otherwise, its not good for me to handle such case alone as a brother.

Looking forward to more shepherding together as a couple. 

Lord, continue to shepherd us to shepherd others.