Are you living out of the present reality that Jesus died for you? You accepted Him as Savior and He delivered you into his Kingdom, but do you realize that His work on the cross doesn't just save us once; it saves us in every situation, every day, if we will hear and experience the gospel personally. 

Preach the gospel to yourself first. I'm not talking "gospel" as in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--but the whole gospel message, that Christ died for us while we were sinners. That we are asked simply to believe and receive that working in our own strength is useless and exhausting, and that God has something better for us -- not just in mentoring relationships but in all of life.

God knows that we are sinners; this is our inherited state as "daughters of Adam," and yet He adores us, pursues us, and does whatever it takes to capture our hearts until they are worshipping and resting in only Him.

Therefore it is supreme good news when the flow of our lives is interrupted so that we can get more of God and less of ourselves.  That is when we are given the chance to invite Jesus into our present realities, hard situations and interactions with challenging people, as we repent of our wrong reactions and sinful patterns and turn back to Him.

We live as if our gifts are what matter.  We don't realize that the greatest gift we have is the disruption of the gospel because it leads us to repentance, which of course delivers us straight to forgiveness and new life.

So if we are mentoring (or even preaching, teaching, leading or simply living), we are not able to bring other people to Jesus unless we expose to them our own need for Him. The best mentors, therefore, model repentance. We do no one a favor when we allow them to live comfortably without feeling the disruption or affliction that comes from the truth of the gospel message (which includes our status as sinners).

Disruption renders our perceived position of strength irrelevant, offering change and growth in our faith. Psalm 119 is a lengthy exposition of the various roles of God's word. Several selected verses (67, 68, 71, 74, and 75) included here tell us:

Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word.

You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees.

It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.

May those who fear you rejoice when they see me,
for I have put my hope in your word.

I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous,
and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Do we welcome the chance to repent when we see our sin? Do we enjoy chances to admit our sin and be the first to repent before those with whom we are in relationships (mentoring or otherwise)? Hardly.  We often are angry, resistant, and shameful instead of delighted to be exposed. 

This is largely because we set up as idols other things besides our God.  We will address modern-day idolatry (more than you may want to encounter it) elsewhere on our website, but suffice it to say that when our hope is in something other than God, we are devastated to be exposed.

Conversely when our hope is in God alone, not in other people or in our own goodness, we are free to be flawed, repentant women.  We can react to the conviction of the Holy Spirit with godly sorrow (heartbroken that we have offended a holy God as opposed to being sorry we have been caught), and then we are on the way to being more and more sanctified. 

We must model repentance for our mentorees, for their lives will definitely provide opportunities to face sin and find forgiveness.  We want to interact with and pray for them in such a way that they would not avoid sanctification through a life of deceptive ease!

© Cary Campbell Umhau for Inspire! Women's Mentoring Ministries. Cary is a freelance writer and editor, Bible teacher and speaker.  She is a wife, mother and experienced mentor.  She has also worked professionally in catering, eBay sales, discipleship and marketing. She loves reflecting on the relevance of the Bible to the diverse and seemingly unrelated elements of our lives.

The concept of "leaders as chief repenters" and some of this material was taught at a World Harvest Mission conference entitled "Waking Sleeping Beauty: The Power of the Gospel to Transform Individuals and Churches."  For more teaching along these lines, go to www.whm.org and click on the "Grow" tab.