30 Years in Christ

Tonight marks a milestone in my life. On the night of July 1-2, 1978 I yielded myself to Jesus Christ. It was a Sunday evening, and our youth director had taken our group to a special youth program at another church in our area. I didn’t call upon the Lord at this meeting, nor did I do it at our own church services. I had held on to the back of the pew in front of me until my knuckles turned white. But on the way home that night I rode the church van as Charlie, our youth director, took everyone home. I could have gotten off sooner, but I wanted to talk in private.

When we pulled into the church parking lot it was just him and me in the van. I started confessing the kind of life I had been living, and he assured me of the Lord’s mercy in Christ. Around 12:30 or 1:00 I called upon the name of the Lord, and His joy and peace flooded my soul. I really felt forgiven and accepted by God for the sake of His Son, who died in the sinner’s place and rose again for our justification.

I didn’t know much at that time about the Bible and Christian living. But I picked up my old Bible, which had lain mostly untouched since my parents gave it to me years earlier, and began reading. I soon found that someone had circled two verses in my Bible, Proverbs 3:5-6—“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (KJV, what I grew up on). To this day I don’t know who drew my attention to that passage, but it has been one of my favorite passages for three decades.

The Lord has brought me along in my knowledge of Him since that time, but I find that He frequently has to bring me back to that simple, child-like faith. Sometimes when my life seems so complicated, and I feel disappointed and frustrated, the Lord somehow reminds me that I should trust Him rather than my own faulty reasoning. How I wish I were quicker to listen!

Our circumstances may change because we live in a world that isn’t our home (Hebrews 13:14), but the one constant we can count on is God, who loves us and sent His Son to reconcile us to Himself. Adversity doesn’t truly indicate God’s feelings toward us. We need Scripture to tell us that these things are from the hand of our loving Heavenly Father and that they work together with all other things for our good, to make us more like Christ (Romans 8:28-30). The death of His Son in our stead is the ultimate expression and proof of His undying love for believers.

I meditate on these things tonight because, thirty years later, I’m not where I should be in my walk with the Lord, and I’m disappointed. I’ve failed Him terribly and frequently. If I look at myself and my inconsistency, I’ll get discouraged. But if I come back to the place where He first drew me, and I trust in Him anew, I find strength to get back in the race. I agree with John Newton, who said, “I’m not what I ought to be; I’m not what I’m going to be; but, thank God, by His grace, I’m not what I once was!” There has been progress, as I’ve focused my attention on Him and His invincible grace.

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
“Trust in the LORD forever,
For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4 NASB)

30 Years in Christ