Offers

Well, I was at the grocery store yesterday picking up a few times when the Lord decided to share something with me. I think it's amazing how God can show us some something profound from the "little things" in life (in the strangest of places, too). We, in turn, have the great opportunity to share what we learned with others.


Oh yeah, back to the story. I was pulling in a parking space at the grocery store, and there was an elderly lady in the space in front of me trying to put her groceries in her trunk. Not too far away was an employee of the store who was collecting grocery carts to take back into the store. I watched him come over close to the lady, and I don't know why this all caught my attention, other than the Lord wanted me to see it. He did say something to her, but I have no idea what it was. She did speak back with him, but since I was in my car and had the windows rolled up, I had no idea what all transpired during this conversation. I initially thought he wanted to see if she needed some help with getting her groceries in her car, but he just sort of stood there while she continued putting the groceries in her trunk. After a while, I realized he was probably just waiting for her to finish so he could get her cart, and I thought...why didn't he offer to help her put those groceries in her car? Then I thought...well, maybe he did, and she just didn't want him to help her. We've all been in that situation before, when someone offers to help us, and we refuse for whatever reason. It might be we don't want to inconvenience that person, or maybe we just wanted to do it ourselves.


All this information started to assimilate in my head, and I started thinking about how God offers salvation to people all the time and some just refuse it, over and over. He always extends His hand out in love to speak to people. Sometimes He might speak to us through an experience He puts us through to help us understand we really do need Him. Other times He might send someone to act as the "messenger" and talk to us, or maybe send us to a television or radio broadcast we "thought" we just accidentally came across on our own. Whatever the case might be, we all need to be "tuned in" if God is speaking to us, christians and non-christians alike. For those folks who aren't christians, you should thank God that He is so patient with speaking to you about your salvation (I know, because He had to speak to me for 31 years before I would listen). God loves you, and He wants what's best for you. After all, He made the entire universe and everything within it. He is outside of time and knows what is going to happen in the future. He created you, too, so He knows everything about you, what makes you tick, so to speak. Therefore, He knows what's best for you. You might think you know yourself well, but let me assure you God knows you a lot better than you do. :)


It's the ultimate insult to God when He offers to help us guide our lives and we continually refuse to let Him do so. The book of Isaiah has a scripture about how God dislikes the fact that people think they're "too good" to accept His help.

All day long I have held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations-

a people who continually provoke me
to my very face,
offering sacrifices in gardens
and burning incense on altars of brick;

who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;

who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me,
for I am too sacred for you!'
Such people are smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that keeps burning all day. (Isaiah 65:2-5)



It's a good thing to know that God is patient, though, especially in light of reading those scriptures above. It's a wonder He doesn't just "give up" and leave us to our own. I know of some people who say they'll "get saved" one of these days when they're "ready". I used to approach my salvation that way also, but it is very foolish to do so. The scriptures tell us that God will speak to us about our salvation, but obviously He doesn't do it every waking moment of the day. If He did, we'd all be well aware of it. In His great wisdom, God has chosen to speak to us only at certain times. So...God might speak to you today about your salvation, but He might not tomorrow. Jesus says, though, that today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow, not next week, next month, or next year. Today. So... if God is speaking to you about being saved, you ought to listen and act accordingly. Also, in John 6:44, Jesus says that "no one can come to Him unless the Father draws Him". Since Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6), and no one can come to Jesus unless the spirit of God draws Him, there are only certain times that God will speak to you about your salvation. Eventually, there'll be a time when God will no longer speak to you about it. None of us know when that time is because it's all in the hands of God, and He knows when your "time is up" and your opportunities are over. Although I haven't ever seen it in scripture, I would think that God continues to speak to you about your salvation over your lifetime (I've heard of people being saved on their deathbeds, so it would stand to reason that God does offer salvation up to the last minute, at least for some). However, therein lies the problem; none of us know how long a life God will give us. If you wait to be saved when it's "convenient", you might find yourself playing "russian roulette" with your soul. Your "time" might be up before you know it and you'll find yourself spending eternity where you don't want to be.


Since God is just, He's not going to just let you spend eternity without Him without at least being fair to you and give you a chance to come for salvation. He'll offer it at least once, anyhow. And if you're reading this article and have never heard the gospel presented to you before reading this, be assured you've been given your minimum one opportunity, so heed the call of God. He loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him in heaven one day. In the meantime, He wants to help you get through the temporal, day-to-day living you're in now. If He's speaking to you, Don't Wait!