“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Hebrews 3:7-8) It is amazing to watch a person respond to God’s conviction. There are many various callings in faith, but it all begins with the Holy Spirit drawing a person to salvation through Christ. Every time I witness it, I remember how the Lord pulled my heart to consider the truth of the Gospel, and that no decision is as great as surrendering our life to Christ through faith and repentance.
People come to Christ in many different situations—some in a church service, and some outside of that. In a couple of weeks, I say goodbye to a young man from Wisconsin. He is a native American and a marine stationed at Meridian’s Naval Air Station. His time here ends soon, and he returns home. His name is Kenneth, and I will miss him dearly. I would like to relate part of his story.
After a couple of weeks of attending the church I pastor, Kenneth began to reflect upon the condition of his soul. He had grown up in church but never really knew what the gospel meant. He asked if we could get together and talk, as the burden of his heart was weighing him down. We scheduled a day and met at Chick-fil-a in Meridian. As we began to talk, two things were obvious: like so many youth who grow up in church today, he did not actually understand the gospel. And second, the Holy Spirit was speaking loudly to him.
I will never forget the look in Kenneth’s eyes as I explained the simple message of the gospel, and how Jesus died so that all who would trust Him could be reconciled “by grace through faith.” Kenneth’s sin, like all of us, was a heavy burden upon his heart, and he leapt at the message of grace. The restaurant was packed, as it was a Saturday and it was lunchtime. The crowd was elbow to elbow. In the middle of that crowd, he asked, “Can I do it now?”
Right there, in between eating our waffle fries and grilled chicken sandwiches, Kenneth cried out to Jesus. In repentance and childlike faith, I watched this young man become a new person in Christ. The burden of guilt, sin and shame was washed from his heavy soul, and his eyes lit up with peace and freedom. I will never forget Kenneth. In fact, every time I see a Chick-fil-a, I think of him and pray for him.
I don’t know where you may be as you read this devotion, but one thing is clear. If the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart, don’t put it off. Don’t wait for Sunday morning. I was in a truck going down a highway. Kenneth was in a Chick-fil-a. Pray, turn, and surrender…When You Hear His Voice
