Don't Be Discouraged

       Sometimes when we share the Lord with people or a message that He placed on our hearts for them they will respond eagerly, wanting to know more, and other times not so much. This can be very discouraging, it can make you wonder what you are doing wrong that they don't or won't respond to the message that Jesus laid on your heart. But we really shouldn't let this get us down. If they are already a believer and have a relationship with God it may just be that they aren't ready to receive this word yet, their flesh is still getting in the way of them receiving it, and the same can be said for the non-believers, their flesh is opposed to the message so they reject it. This doesn't mean that we give up on them though, it just means we should pray for them and let the Lord work it out. This might mean that you have to share the same word with them several times before they are ready, but I wouldn't push it, just say what is necessary, and then let it go and give it to God.
       We really shouldn't be surprised to be honest when this does happen, even Jesus, John the Baptist, the apostles and the prophets ran into people who didn't, or wouldn't respond to the gospel, and a lot of people wanted them dead for sharing it. They came across people who turned deaf ears to the word of the Lord when He gave instructions and warnings. They ignored the call of repentance in order to cling longer to their sin, we have not really changed much as a society in that aspect and others, in fact the more I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament the more I see this is true, our technology changes, but our hearts still prefer pleasant lies over hard truths.
       Some of us are stubborn in our flesh, we have a hard time accepting the things we don't want to hear even if they are true. We would rather be comforted with a lie than trust that what doesn't make sense to us now could really be the answer we are looking for. Some of us are still immature in the spirit and are lacking in trust, or spiritual knowledge and need patience to be guided to the place where they need to be in order to accept the truth. And then there's the group that can't and won't accept the truth no matter what,  people that have hearts of stone, they have deceived themselves into believing that they don't need God, and they can do it all without Him or His permission, or they simply have convinced themselves that God is nothing more than a fairy tale.
       My point today isn't really about these other people though, what I really want to put out there to you today is this, don't let someone's reaction to the gospel or the message that Lord placed on your heart be a point of discouragement for you. It's not really you they are rejecting, God tells his prophet Samuel this very thing in 1 Samuel 8:7; after they demanded to have a king like other nations, when God's messengers are rejected it is really God or His word that they have rejected. And Jesus tells us in John 15:20 that if they persecuted Him, we will be persecuted by them also, but if they obeyed Him, they will obey us. If you know that what you did or said was what God wanted, don't be hurt or frustrated when it isn't accepted, just shake the dust from your feet and move forward, let God handle their hearts and stay in obedience.

1 Samuel 8:6-8
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.

John 15:18-25

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’