Revelation 15:4 “Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

All who refuse to acknowledge God now are also refusing to accept the plain and simple reality that the time will come when they will have no choice. However, sonship comes only to those who choose to acknowledge God in their life on earth. I honestly can’t imagine what it will be like for those who have stubbornly rejected God, but I do know it will be horrible beyond words. That’s why I try to persuade as many as possible to open their hearts to Him while they have the opportunity. The longer I walk with God, the more illogical it seems to me that anyone would do otherwise. The benefits are limitless! However, there’s that stubborn matter of pride, of wanting to go our own way. I recently saw a cartoon of God looking down on the earth and talking with an angel, saying, “Did I really give them that much free will?” Someone commented on that, “That’s like being ‘a little bit’ pregnant!” The commenter was wiser than the cartoonist, though I certainly understand the cartoonist’s feelings. I keep coming back to the reality that God wants children, not robots. The risks are indeed extreme, and they cost Jesus His life, to buy back those who sold themselves to sin: the human race. God is love, and love is vulnerable to being hurt. God doesn’t want anyone to go to destruction, (1 Timothy 2:3-4) but He will not stop those who insist on it, though it breaks His heart.

This is the great paradox of existence, and I have struggled with it for as long as I’ve been aware of it. It’s certainly a reminder that I’m not smart, God is! It is beyond my intellectual capacity to grasp all the implications of this, so like a little child, I just need to trust my Daddy. At times I want so much to just wave a wand, so to speak, and have a person or group of people open their hearts to God, but it simply doesn’t work that way. What I can do, though, is be a disciple by making disciples for Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20) It’s certainly not instant, like I would often like it to be, but it is very real, and the rewards, for me and for them, are incalculable.

Father, I am surrounded by people who don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and I so want them in Your family with me! Help me be increasingly effective in making strong disciples, to save as many as possible. Thank You for the opportunities I have at two different graduation parties to “say a few words.” I pray that Your Spirit through me would speak Your words so that they may be embedded in the heart of each hearer, drawing them inexorably to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!