“Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.” (Psalm 32:6)
My wife told me a story the other day, which took the form of a modern-day parable.
Jesus often relied on parables in the Bible to compare something in everyday life to a spiritual truth. However, many of us have trouble applying them in today’s world because we don’t belong to the culture for which they were written. In other words, the importance of the spiritual truth is easily misunderstood if not lost altogether because we can’t relate to the everyday example to which Jesus compares it.
I don’t think you’ll have any trouble understanding my wife’s parable. It draws from an incident to which we all can relate and emphasizes a spiritual truth that Jesus taught through one of his parables.
We have friends who were vacationing along Florida’s Gulf coast. Their daughter and niece were playing on rafts out in the water as they enjoyed the trappings and distractions of beachcombing. All were unaware that a major storm was brewing several hundred miles out in the Gulf, even though the undertow was already beginning to show the early symptoms that it was too close for comfort.
Because the children were on rafts, they hadn’t noticed the undertow and didn’t realize that they had drifted out beyond the breakers until one of them lost her float. Her cousin told her to hold on to the raft until help arrived, but no one seemed to be noticing that they needed help. Meanwhile, the undertow repeatedly overpowered the little girl, relinquishing just long enough for her to get her head back above the water and catch her breath.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a lifeguard appeared. However, he couldn’t overcome the power of the undertow either and told the girls that if they drifted out beyond the next row of breakers, there would be no coming back.
I’m not going to drag out the suspense. The lifeguard managed to get the girls safely back to shore. All are well, thankful for life, and have a heightened appreciation for the spiritual truth that accompanied their experience.
Since this parable is told in the context of our own culture, most of us have no trouble understanding its connection to the burden of sin and the timing of salvation in the life of an unbeliever. Indeed, as Paul put it, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. (Romans 6:23)
What many of us fail to understand is what Paul meant when he said, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation”. (2 Corinthians 6:2)
Each of us knows an unbeliever who thinks he can decide when it is time to repent of his sins and open his heart to Jesus. While he will freely admit he sometimes feels God’s pull, he doesn’t think he needs God right now. “There’s plenty of time left before I need to make that decision,” he will tell you.
He may be deadly wrong. God told the Prophet Isaiah, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:)
The truth is God will not wait on us to come to him. That first knock on the door of our hearts may be our only opportunity to answer his call. His word constantly reminds us that it is God who decides who may come to him; and it is God who will decide when it is time to shut the door, which is why Jesus said, “Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us’. But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from’.” (Luke 13:25)
Aren’t you glad that when you were drowning in your gulf of sin, a lifeguard appeared to let you know that if you got out much farther, there would be no coming back. After all, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. (John 3:17)
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