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LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

How many conversions to Christ must we witness to be convinced that Jesus Christ can transform anyone from a terrorist to an evangelist?

I ask that question because I think there is a level of doubt in our hearts about the saving power of Jesus. The evidence for such a statement is found in the contrast between the level of fear and the intensity of prayer I see in people’s lives. We are more prone to protect ourselves from threats to our faith than we are to pray for those who threaten us.

Even though we say we believe in the transforming power of Jesus to rescue anyone from sin and make them His servant, we do not necessarily allow that belief to influence our attitudes and actions towards those who would persecute us. The Apostle Paul tells us his own story to remind us that it’s possible to go from a terrorist to an evangelist.

Galatians 1:13-14   “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

The reason we do not grasp the full value of Paul’s conversion and apply it to those who oppose Christianity today may well be in our misunderstanding of grace. When we believe that man’s methods are responsible for man’s transformation, then we have ever right to be afraid. But when we believe that God’s grace is responsible for man’s transformation, then we trust the power of God to save anyone in the same way He saved us. If we believe we assisted God in saving us, then we will doubt the ability of others to save themselves. But when we fully trust the blood of Jesus Christ to save us apart from any work we do, then we will believe that anyone can be saved.

My friends, we must not live in fear of those who stand opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must pray for their conversion to Christ. And if we have even the slightest doubt that they can be saved, then we must doubt that we are, for in God’s eyes we were all equally condemned by our sin and the cost of salvation was the same for all of us.

Start praying for the enemies of Jesus, especially those who claim to have religion.

Pastor John