If you are under a cloud of fear, or not sure if the Lord accepts you, you do not understand His discipline, you feel like you are on the outside, you know you have sinned and you do not deserve His blessings, the party is going on inside and you feel “thrust into outer darkness,” the Father has commissioned His Son Jesus to minister especially for you:
“‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,’” He says, “‘because He hath appointed Me to preach the gospel [good news] to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord’” (Luke 4:18, 19).
Even Christ’s enemies confessed that He “receiveth sinners” (15:2). The last page of the Bible welcomes all who are “thirsty” (Rev. 22:17). David has written the exact prayer for all to pray who feel that they are unworthy sinners: it’s Psalm 51; read it, on your knees.
“But there are so many things I must do and I don’t know how to do them all.” Well, two things in Hebrews 11:6: (1) you must believe that God exists, and (2) you must believe that “He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” That is, that He is faithful love.
“But that’s my problem: I don’t know how to believe. I was born and bred in unbelief.” Wait a moment: God has already given you “a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3), the gift of believing; no one can ever say that God has deprived him of faith! He has given you exactly the amount you need for eternal salvation. Now, choose to believe. But maybe it‘s as difficult for you as it was for the poor father of the devil-tormented son in Mark 4. He had come to the ordained pastors of the church (yes, the nine disciples at the foot of the mountain in Matthew 17) and they had failed to help him and he was distraught with a terrible fear (you would be, too, if the Lord’s own disciples, some of the Twelve, had pronounced your case hopeless!).
And then the Lord Jesus appears to dangle a great blessing before him, IF—“all things are possible to him that believeth” and in a burst of honesty you also cry out “with tears, ... Help Thou mine unbelief.” But that ellipsis contains your deliverance: “Lord, I believe ...” (9:17-24, KJV). You confess the battle raging in your soul: you believe and at the same time you disbelieve. Now, in the face of the most discouraging outlook, choose to believe. Let the tears come—that father cried and cried; then choose again. You can never perish while you pray that simple prayer; people wiser than I have said so.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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