I was curious.
God had blessed me with a growing friendship with a retired, highly successful, lifelong disciplemaker, and I wanted to know how he had stayed on God’s path so consistently, so closely for so long. So I asked.
The answer was Proverbs 28:13.
Decades ago he had joined a small men’s Bible study at church. He came home one day from the gathering and told his wife he wanted to quit. “No” was her reply. “Every time you come home from meeting with those guys you are in a better mood. You are not quitting”.
So he stayed.
Slowly the group changed. Men started taking off their masks, revealing their wounds & weaknesses, struggles that no one else knew about. One guy struggled with pride. Another with anger. Another with pornography. Another with a deep interiority complex.
Proverbs 28:13 was their vision statement. They made a commitment to meet regularly, to be open with each other, to pray for one another, to encourage one another. They keep what is shared among them a secret. But they regularly confront each other how each one is doing with his respective struggle.
They have been meeting regularly for over 40 years and plan to meet until they die. The accountability, encouragement, and support from those guys is what has kept my retired discipleship buddy on God’s path all his life.
Time for you to start such your own Proverbs 28:13 group? Imagine how it will give ballast to your life!