Oftentimes, during church, these questions have been voiced:

• If you were on trial for being a follower of Jesus, a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
• Do we have “fire insurance” OR are we living in obedience to the LORD?
• How serious do we take our command to “take up our cross daily and follow Me” [Jesus]?

When God cleansed us and made us new, His mercies were radically fresh and new, setting us free on that day.  God wiped away our sin and cast it “as far as the east is to the west,” totally forgetting how we had sinned against Him.  Hallelujah, God wiped our slate clean and gave us a brand-new start!  Have we grown any from that day of our salvation?  Do we have any evidence that proves we have grown (in Christ)?  There is a certain balance—between God’s omnipotence and our faithful, obedient life.  Yes, that’s right.  God does not want us just inside heaven’s gate with our “heavenly fire insurance help tightly in our hand.”  God wants to welcome us home to heaven when He brings us there and says:  “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”  Truthfully, it’s like God will say:  “Child, who did you bring?  What fruit did you bear?”

There is a person in my family, one of my grandmother’s sisters.  This person, this lady, this wife, this mom, this child of God raised three children:  two girls and a boy.  The story goes that her husband and she took these three children to church, taught them how to pray, introduced them each to Jesus, the Savior of the world.  Over time, her daughters gave their hearts to the Lord, but the son persisted in saying “No, Lord, not today.”

Is that not the TRUEST OXYMORON EVER SPOKEN!

When we say, “NO, LORD, NOT TODAY.”  Are we really saying:  “No, Lord, you are not the boss of me?!!!!”  Are we really saying:  “I know that You are the LORD, but no, not today will I give my heart to You & no, LORD, I will not walk in obedience to You today”?!!!!

The story goes that my grandmother’s sister, my great aunt, prayed for her son to come to know Christ as Savior and Lord, for thirty years in fact—she prayed.  She was Persistent.  She Patiently waited upon the Lord.  She Trusted that God would save her boy, her child, in God’s timing, as God worked within her son’s life, opening his eyes to see Jesus, the Light of the world.

This testimony of faith, this narrative that my great aunt shared with me, gives me such great hope as I pray over those I know who do not yet know the Lord as Savior.  Maybe you, too, have names written upon your prayer list, lives of people who remain in darkness, those who need to meet Jesus Christ in an intimate relationship.

Stephen Stanley sings a melody that is applicable—

“LET YOUR EYES SEE THE LIGHT.

LET YOUR HANDS BE SANTIZED.

LET YOUR SOUL BE UNIFIED.

BY PERFECT LOVE!

GOD DON’T MAKE NO MISTAKES!

NOTHING HE CAN’T ERASE!

NOTHING HE CAN’T UNDO!

NEVER GIVES UP ON YOU!

OH, THERE AIN’T NO LOST CAUSE!

NO ONE’S TOO FAR GONE!

YOU STILL BELONG TO—THE GOD WHO STAYS WITH YOU—HE WON’T LET GO!

THERE’S NO HOPELESS SOUL.”

“No Hopeless Soul”

• WHAT PRAYER(S) ARE WE LIFTING TODAY?
• WHAT PRAYER REQUEST(S) HAVE WE LIFTED FOR DAYS, FOR WEEKS, FOR MONTHS, FOR YEARS?
• WHAT NAMES HAVE WE WRITTEN DOWN—LIVES OF THOSE—WHO NEED A TOUCH FROM GOD?

God has a mighty work He is doing within the lives of His children!

• Maybe God is pruning us.
• Maybe God is growing our faith.
• Maybe God is providing us time for our spiritual maturity to grow.
• Maybe God is allowing us the necessary time He knows we need to become His fruit-bearing children.
• Maybe when the Son of Man comes, will He find us faithful on the earth.
• Maybe our Father is giving us the opportunity to glorify Him!
• Maybe God in His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence is changing us (His children) AT THE SAME TIME AS HE IS CHANGING THE HEART of the ONE we are PRAYING for TODAY!

God is watching to see if we will be His faithfully obedient child!