If someone asked you today, “Why are you a Christian?” what would you say? If you answered, “I’ve always been a Christian?” then I have a question for you — “Then why did Jesus have to die on the cross?”
There is no evidence in Scripture that being born into a Christian home guarantees salvation. No, what we see in Scripture is the story of redemption — people so corrupted and lost by the curse of sin that the only answer was for God to intervene. Why would he do this? Because of his love. The redemption story doesn’t start in the New Testament, but is clearly seen throughout the entire Bible. That’s what hit me in reading Psalm 107.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say this — those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.*
In this psalm, there are four states of those who eventually cried out to the Lord and found his salvation:
- Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
- Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains for they had rebelled against the words of God.
- Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
- Others went out to sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.**
Can you identify with one of these? Where were you when you cried out to the Lord?
Where you a wanderer? Lost in your own unsettled state? Homeless — physically and spiritually?
Where you in deep grief or depression, because you’d chosen to live your way and not God’s, even though you’d been taught his word as a child? You knew, but rebelled, and were living chained to a sinful life?
Where you a rebel who abused your mind and body with addictions?
Or, where you a person who tried to escape through travel and work?
Those in this psalm cried out to the Lord in their trouble. At what point did you cry out and experience the stilling of the storm by trusting yourself into the safe-haven of Christ?
Are you thankful for the unfailing love of God that saved you by grace alone? Have you told anyone else your story?
If you don’t have a story to tell, it’s not too late — cry out to the Lord and let Jesus bring you in from the storm.
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.***
Grace and Peace
*Psalm 107:2-3 (NIV)
**Psalm 107: 4, 10-11, 17, 23 (NIV)
***Psalm 107:43 (NIV)