The sheep of our good Shepherd’s flock have had a variety of experiences—some are strong in the Lord and others are weak in faith. But the Lord is impartial in His care for all His sheep, and the weakest lamb is as dear to Him as the most advanced of the herd. Lambs are prone to lagging behind, wandering, and growing weary, but the Shepherd, with His arm of power, protects them from all the dangers of these weaknesses. He finds newborn souls, like young lambs, ready to perish, and He nourishes them until their life becomes vigorous. He finds weak minds ready to faint and die, and He comforts them and renews their strength. He gathers all the little ones, since it is not our heavenly Father’s will that even one of them should perish. What a quick eye He must have to see them all! What a tender heart to care for all of them! What a powerful, far-reaching arm to gather them all! In His lifetime on earth, Jesus was a great gatherer of weaker types, and now that He lives in heaven, His loving heart yearns toward the meek and contrite, the timid and feeble, the fearful and fainting here below. How gently He gathered me to himself—to His truth, to His blood, to His love, to His church! With what effective grace He compelled me to come to himself! Since the day of my conversion, how often He has restored me from my wanderings, once again folding me within the circle of His everlasting arms! Best of all, He does it personally, not delegating the task of love, but lowering himself to rescue and preserve His most unworthy servant. How can I love Him enough or serve Him appropriately? I would gladly lift His name to the ends of the earth, but what can my feebleness do for Him? Great Shepherd, please add one more blessing to the mercies you’ve shown me: a heart to love you more truly as I ought. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
But I can't come to Christ because I have...
You don't understand, if God finds out...
No, I can't, God wouldn't want me after I...
The list goes on. There's probably the lines you who have come to Christ had once said to someone sharing the Gospel to you as well. Your personal excuses that you once believed were too great to make you worth saving by Jesus.
Hate to break it to all who have believed and to all who haven't yet...nobody has been worthy. Everyone including all the greats who wrote the Bible weren't worthy.
Nobody is. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Then, too, the wages of sin is death. Both in the Bible, both a revelatory eye opener to all who read and understand it. As God has it written, so it is. Nobody's worth it from birth. That's why it took Jesus coming to Earth as He did to create the perfect exchange of God for man. He took on everything you and I and every single person who has ever lived or is living or will live...took all that sin upon Himself on the cross. He met it, and bested it. He erased every judgment against all who would believe and come to Christ to be saved.
Then, He didn't stop there, He kept His promise never to leave us alone. To send the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Who stays with each who have believed, to help them learn and grow in Christ.
He keeps His promises. Don't compare notes with other believers. Don't degrade yourself by what you see in others. Don't, if you aren't a believer, look at the likes of the Spurgeon's or the Billy Graham's of this world and consider yourself unable to be of any use for God. That you just can't do that kind of thing.
Guess what? Neither can I. Neither can any others who have come to Christ. Jesus needs you to be you for Him. He doesn't want me to be a Spurgeon or a Paul of Tarsus. Doesn't want me to be a Barnabas or a Timothy.
He needs me, and hopefully you, to be who He needs you to be for Him.
Look at your choice today. Your reasons for not coming to Christ. For those who have come to Christ, look at what you are doing.
We choose to not only come to Christ, we also choose not to. In the end, we choose.
We can believe the lies in our heads or we can choose to take a step towards truth.
We who are in Christ can choose to live for Jesus or try to skate on by in life. We can choose to learn to grow or choose to wrap our arms around the world to live as if we didn't come to Christ.
I don't have to be perfect. I have to be willing. I didn't have to be good or perfect to come to Christ. I had to be willing to take the leap of faith to come to Christ. To agree with Him that maybe He was and is right, that to Him I am worth saving. Regardless of what I have done or do, my stand before Him is that He loves me and forgives me.
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