As I write I am back in Wales, on one of my visits to do guest house ministry. Obviously, now I have been blessed with a pastorate, these episodes are fewer in number. Yet they bring with them happy memories of my continual journeying back and forth to the Principality last year. At that time, guest house ministry was a lifeline. Without it I would hardly have been involved in any meaningful Christian service.
As an icebreaker on this occasion, I asked the guests to say a few words about those who had been an inspiration to them (see my entry on "Role Models" from last December). Some said that different people fulfilled this role at different points in their lives. It almost seemed as though different angels visited them periodically, to minister to them specially at moments of crisis.
All this made my thoughts turn to the example of a young king of Israel called Joash, who was blessed with a mentor in time of need. A high priest called Jehoiada was his inspiration and guide when he first became king, following the violent overthrow of his usurping, grasping grandmother Athaliah. The old priest guided the new monarch wisely. Joash learned good things from him and became zealous for God and transparent in his dealings. Jehoida eventually died, however. Soon the king neglected what he had learned and his reign took a downward spiral. He even had Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son, killed because this man had spoken up against him (2 Chronicles 24). Joash was really bereft without his mentor and sadly there was no one to step in and fill Jehoiada's shoes.
Who is your inspiration? Sometimes, under God, we can be blessed with someone who does us good simply by being the person he or she is. Even if somebody like that is absent from our lives, we can always turn for inspiration to the Bible characters and especially to our Saviour Jesus who is our pattern for life.
The apostle Paul regarded Jesus as his hero and model and constantly invited others to do the same. He pondered long and hard in his devotions on the example Jesus set. Our Lord is thought to be the inspiration for Paul's great so-called love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in the ESV.)
God may have sent someone to you to model Christ for you at just the moment you needed it. We neglect our God-given mentors at our peril.
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