Make Your Investment Count-Finding Faithful Men

In the early 1990s, I had the wonderful privilege of attending an “Experiencing God” weekend led by Henry Blackaby. I was a campus minister at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. (A position I served for 20 years.) All of the BCM directors and their wives from across the state of Louisiana were invited to participate. Henry Blackaby and his wife spent all weekend teaching the 7 Realities of Experiencing God. It was an incredible time of learning about God, His purposes, and His ways.

One of the 7 realties (#3), is that “God invites you to become involved with Him and His work.” This reality is connected to the two characteristics of faithful man that we will discuss today- availability and intentionality.

AVAILABLE

When looking for the right kind of men to invest in, we have already seen that they must have demonstrated faithfulness. In addition, they must be available. In other words, they must have the time to be in a mentoring relationship. They can’t be so committed to other endeavors that they don’t have the necessary time to give themselves to something else on the calendar. God may be “inviting them to become involved with Him and His work,” but they are not available because they have already committed to other things.

When encountering these men, you must discern whether these men truly have a desire to follow the call and work on next steps or they are really not interested in pursuing God or His plans for them.

When I have discerned that a man really has a desire to pursue God and His call on their lives, I’ve found it helpful to grab coffee or lunch and have an honest conversation with him. I try to encourage him to continue to “go hard after God” and to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in his life; but perhaps this is not the right “season” for us to walk together because he’s got so much on his plate right now. Let’s circle back in 2 or 3 months to talk about it.

INTENTIONAL

When I was a freshman at LSU, I was a member of a campus ministry called the Navigators. During the fall of the year, I committed to be in a discipleship group that would meet every Monday afternoon. We would study the Bible, memorize scripture, hold each other accountable, and pray for one another. As a new believer in Christ, walking with these guys was life giving!

Early on our D group leader, Johnny (an upper classman), challenged us with a quote by Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators, “Only three things are eternal- God, His word, and the souls of men. Invest in these things.”

These words gripped my heart and had a profound impact on my life, because since then I’ve committed my life to these things. Listen, if you want to make your investment count, find men who are intentional about the things of God. Men who want to pursue God’s calling on their lives and are intentional about being obedient to God as He reveals their next steps.

It is written: “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day”(Proverbs 4:18 English Standard Version).

What a wonderful promise! This verse promises that when we walk in the light that we have, God will give more light. In other words, when we obey God in the things He has clearly revealed to us, He will be faithful to reveal more of His will to us.

Lord, lead us to invest in those men who are available to give themselves to walking with us and intentional about pursuing the call You have on their lives!