Page 116 - First Steps 2023

And if you can’t think of someone in your life who needs peace,
someone you’d like to see follow Jesus, pray now for God to bring some-
one into your life. Someone that you’d like to tell about the “parable of the
insane banker.”

Check this circle and write the name of the person that you
would like to see follow Jesus. ________________________

Both of you: discipler and disciple pause to pray right now.
Who—specifically—would you like to see become a Jesus-follower?
Pray that God provide an opportunity for that person to hear the

gospel of peace.

3. Grace.

Let’s talk about our banker friend again.
If you’re like most people, having that car debt paid off would be a
huge deal…but sooner or later you’d be shopping for a new car. And be-
cause you’ve got something to trade in, you’d stretch for something nice,
a car you can be proud to drive.
One that, once again, puts you in debt.

Debt that, the next time there’s a hiccup in your finances, you’d find
yourself struggling to cover.
So, once again, you come to the attention of your banker. The same
one who bailed you out before.
If you were that banker, what would you do?
You wouldn’t bail you out a second time—that’s for sure. Bankers
can’t make a habit of writing off loans or they won’t be in business long.
If you and your friends got back in trouble, there’d be no mercy. Pay up or
you’ll be hiking to work, that’s how the story would play out.

Consider what Paul writes about Jesus in Romans 5 …

115