…I am with you all the days… – Matthew 28:20

In the introduction to David Platt’s book, Follow Me, Pastor Francis Chan (author of the book, Crazy Love) wrote the following:

“When people say that they don’t “feel close to Jesus,” I ask them if they are making disciples. After all, his promise to be with us is directly tied to his command to make disciples.”

Indeed, Matthew 28:19-20 (Amplified Bible) does state:

19 Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen (so let it be). [Emphasis added]

Is God with us even when we are not engaged in making disciples? Sure, and verses like Hebrews 13:5 help us to understand that. But Jesus is never more real to us nor more close to us than we are obedient to His commandment to make disciples. I have experienced this in my own life. I feel closest to my Lord when engaged in discipleship activities like handing out Gospel tracts and teaching Sunday School at church. But, I never feel more distant from my Lord than when I refuse to participate in such activities by pursuing my own purposes.

The average Christian in America today has never made one disciple, let alone many, and that’s why the average Christian in America is miserably distant from God. If you are miserably distant from your Savior, then examine yourself. When was the last time you did anything to make disciples? Do you tell others about Christ when He prompts? Do you hand out Gospel tracts? Do you teach in any capacity at your church? Do you serve in the church nursery so that parents can be discipled in Sunday School and church without distraction? Do you host Bible studies at your home where, if you are not the teacher, you provide a platform for a teacher to reach your friends and family? There are so many ways that we can make disciples, and they don’t all require that you have the gift of teaching or preaching. They only require that you use the gifts that God has given you to bring others to Him.

In John 1:40-42, Andrew simply told his brother Peter that he had found the Messiah and that he should come and see Him. Jesus did all of the convincing. Bring others to Christ the way God has enabled you to do so, and then let Jesus do the rest of the work.