Salvation

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

This morning I was out on my morning walk. As I was walking, I told Jesus that I want to keep quiet and listen to what He had to say to me. As I was listening, He reminded me of a situation, and I believed He wanted me to share it. Here it is.

Years ago, I was going to a church and I met this person who became my close friend. She said that she had been going there for 20 years or more, and I had just started there. I was at the time a baby in the Lord.

My new friend and I did almost everything together. We became very close.  I will not use her real name so I will just call her Tara. She said that we were kind of like Jonathan and David in the bible. Suddenly, she told me she had to move out of town because since her husband had recently died, she did not want to live in such a huge house by herself unless she could talk me into moving in with her. I told her the only person I wanted to live with is a husband. So eventually, a group of us from the church helped Tara move out of town with her mom. She would come to visit me over the weekend and the next weekend, I would go to visit her. We would travel far away to summits and conferences to see many people who were prophets and inspirational speakers. 

As time passed Tara’s mother became sick and had to go to the hospital. She was devastated so I wanted to be with her. I just got in the car and drove out of town to comfort her. When I arrived at her home, Tara and I went to hospital to see her mom. In the hospital, I walked up to her mom as she was lying in the bed and she looked very sick. Tara introduced her mom to me, and I leaned down and smiled at her and held her hand. I looked at her in her eyes and asked her if she knew Jesus and she said "no." I immediately asked her if she wanted to and she said yes sweetheart. I read her this verse, Romans 10:9- If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. She then repeated after me a prayer of salvation and I led her to the Lord. After that, she held my hand and wouldn’t let go. She was smiling and her countenance changed. We all were so excited for her! After we left the hospital, Tara said that she prayed for her mom to be healed every day, but never even thought to pray for her salvation.

 I was beyond amazed that my friend had been saved over 20 years and she didn’t even consider leading her mom to the Lord. Forgive me if I seemed to be judgmental because I don’t mean to be. I know how hard it is to win your own family to the Lord but if you don’t try, I believe their blood could be on our hands. I am very sad to say that a couple of weeks later, she passed to heaven. If we neglected to lead her to the Lord, she wouldn’t be in heaven now. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

I guess I said all of that to say this. If you are a Christian and you have not even thought about leading your family to the Lord, you need to do it. If you try to lead your family to the Lord, and they reject you, it's not that they are rejecting you, they are rejecting the Lord. Nevertheless, it’s now between them and God and you have done your part. Although I was so persistent with my family, they didn’t want to be around me after a while. I have always been persistent but that’s me. Nonetheless, if you try to lead them (your family) to the Lord and they reject you, just pray that God would put people in their path that will lead them to Him. Don’t stop praying for them.  

The Bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). As Christians, we are followers of Christ, and we are all called to live according to God’s law; we are called to live a life of service to God and our fellow man. But nothing is more important than God’s calling for your life, especially your calling to follow Him. We are called to lead all people to the Lord, but if you go out and pray for people and lead them to the Lord and neglect to do the same for your own family, that is not the way God wants us to work it. Look at this verse. We are to provide for our family in every way. 1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 

If you do not love and care for your family, especially your immediate family, then you are denying your faith in God. Families are close to God’s heart. In fact, they were His idea in the first place. From the beginning, when God created man, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone,” so He created woman as a “help-meet, suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). Then, He blessed them and told them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [fill] the earth” (Genesis 1:8). Even after they fell into sin, God continued with His plan for families, and even spoke prophetically of the salvation that would come through the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15)

The Bible tells us, “Now you belong to Him…in order that you might be useful in service to God” (Romans 7:4). One of the greatest ways to display God’s love and reflect Christ’s presence is through acts of kindness and giving back such as praying for your family and people, leading them to the Lord, encouraging and edifying, regardless of your job or career, you are called to full-time Christian service. As Mark 10:45 reminds us “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” That means that we should live lives that reflect our service to others as well as our families.

As a child of God, always remember that the number one things God is calling us to do over all other things is to have a strong, passionate, deep and meaningful relationship with Him, and to love Him with all of our heart and soul and to love Him with all of our mind and strength. That’s His number one desire. As a result of our relationship with Him, He is calling us to be a mouthpiece and to use our hands and feet for him to do His bidding for such a time as this.

Just a reminder: One of the greatest ways to displays God’s love and reflect Christ’s presence is through acts of kindness and giving back such as praying for people, leading them to the Lord, encouraging and edifying all who are around you. But if you do all of that and neglect to do the same for your family, God says in . 1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” If you do not love and care for your family, especially your immediate family, then you are denying your faith in God.

Please do not be like Tara. Don’t let any of them (family) die without doing your very best of trying to lead them to the Lord. I beg of you. At least please try.

Now that I look at it, it was almost like God led me to Tara for the sole purpose of me leading her mom to the Lord, then she passed to heaven. I bet you are wondering whether Tara and I are still in contact with one another. The answer is sadly, no. I have no idea where she is. But I do know where her mom is!!!! She’s in heaven…