Hope

Today I was once again confronted with the fact that God does things in His time and not mine....It's a really bitter pill to swallow when it involves someone that you love and their salvation. We all know that tomorrow is not a guarantee and when you are speaking of someone's eternity that is a hard reality to contemplate.



When you pray for someone's salvation, you're never guaranteed that you will receive the answer you pray for. It is in God's will that we all know Him and accept His gift of salvation, but there's that little thing called free will that trips us all up, believers and non-believers. When you love someone you want only the best for them and part of that, as a Christian, is for them to share in the rewards of God's kingdom, but when that person turns away time and again, I begin to wonder. Am I like a dog chasing my tail? Things keep popping in my head about God hardening Pharaoh's heart. Is that's what is going on here? Is this person too far gone that they will never be able to change.



I'm sorry, but I just can't believe that...As I said tonight "MY Bible says with God ALL things are possible, not SOME things and not a FEW things....ALL things." I just can't give up the hope that God CAN change things because He can change ANYTHING. He's God....There's just that small problem of free will...One of my favorite examples of this is from my FAVORITE Veggie Tales movie called "A Snoodles Tale." Toward the end of the story, the little Snoodle is visiting what one could presume is God. The poor little Snoodle has been trashed and stomped on by everyone around him for a variety of reasons and he's hurt and feels like no one cares....Any way there is an exchange between the Snoodle and "God." "God" tells the Snoodle that "A gift that's demanded is no gift at all." If God gives us the gift of eternal life and then requires that we take it, it has ceased being a gift, and instead has become a demand. The cold reality of it all is that some people will take it and some people won't. It all goes back to free will.



While I love this person and will continue to pray for their salvation, I cannot force them to be saved anymore than God can. This is something that is out of my hands. I will continue to pray and continue to hope that one day they will be transformed and made into the person that God wants them to be....Until then all I can do is pray and hope.