Romans 12:1 (NKJV)

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…”

Not everything can be achieved by force and ‘pushfulness’. There are some things that require the patient use of wooing. Paul in this case could have directly presented God’s Word and expectations to the people as an instruction to be obeyed, but he didn’t. He chose to “beseech” them, meaning, he chose to plead with them, to woo them. Spiritually wooing someone takes inner strength. It’s easier to give instructions and commandments, than to woo someone. With wooing, you leave the onus of obedience at the full discretion of the other party, without providing a sanction that compels him to act in the direction of your desire.

Let’s learn to plead with people more. Let’s appeal to their inner conscience and their inner desires. Let’s make a logical case that’s strong and can attract their positive response. Wooing and pleading with people may look weak and may make us look weak, but it’s a spiritual way of relating with people. There’s a place for forcefulness but there’s also a strong place for wooing. We must note also that we cannot force inner conviction or true spiritual transformation. It therefore takes spiritual discernment to know who and when to woo and who and when to force. May God grant me the inner strength to practice the humility of wooing, even when I have the authority to compel obedience.

“Lord, teach me humility and patience as I need to grow in this grace of wooing men towards spiritual compliance. In Jesus name. Amen.”