Several years ago, I was helping in an evangelism campaign in Georgia. Like most evangelism campaigns we faced a variety of reactions at the door. Some people were not home, some were not interested, but others responded in a fantastic way. We were able to set up several Bible studies and some obeyed the Gospel. It is always great to see another soul being baptized into Christ. The good responses are wonderful to remember, but from this particular campaign, there is one response that has particularly stuck out in my mind. When we knocked on the door the lady that came to the door seemed to be a little suspicious of who we were and what we were doing there. But once we told her who we were she was happy to talk with us and even seemed excited throughout the conversation. Even with her positive response early on, you could just kind of tell there was something she was not saying. We continued studying with her. She read along with us and seemed to respond well to what was being shown to her, but you could just still tell by the look on her face something was wrong. That’s when she changed gears in the conversation. She started telling us so many things from her past, and she had been through a lot and yes, she had done a lot of sinful things. We tried to point her to Jesus. We tried to show her His forgiveness and love. We even got personal with her and talked from the truth seen in Romans 3:23. We all sin and we tried to relay that message to her by even discussing how we too were once living in sin but had now been “made alive” by Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-6) But this woman remembered the things of her past and basically said to us, “God can’t love someone like me”. This woman and her words have stuck in my mind for over a decade. She then quickly ended the conversation. We had a word of prayer with her, and we left.
When we left, we gave her the contact information for the local church, and we gave her information to the local church so they could follow up as well. But when we left it seemed like she had given up on redemption. Like many people in our world, she felt defined by her past and she wouldn’t let go and trust God. This woman, like so many others, just did not understand the love and forgiveness of our God. But this is not just a problem that people in the world and outside of Christ have. So many Christians often forget the love of God. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). We sometimes forget about the cleansing power of His blood and the forgiveness He is faithful to give if we will just come back to Him. (1 John 1:7-9).
There are so many lessons we could discuss but one lesson I especially want each of us to remember today is to never give up. Don’t give up on yourself, on redemption, on love, or forgiveness. God knew we would all fall short, but He loved us so much that before the foundations of the world He had a plan to send Jesus into this world to die on the cross for all of our sins (1 Peter 1:18-23). God knows the things that we have done. He loves us and He wants us all to repent and come to Him. (Acts 17:30, 2 Peter 3:9). Don’t give up on God. He won’t give up on you.
Derek Broome