I was much concerned about my salvation, and really wanted to be a Christian, for I had seen in my parents the beauty and reality of the Christian life; but I was afraid to confess the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, for fear that I would not be able to live worthy of such a profession. I had known some who pressed the Saviour’s Name, but whose lives were very far from what I thought a Christian’s life should be, and very soon they “fell away” altogether, and were worse than before they professed anhing. I knew my need, saw that by faith in Christ alone I could be saved; but what was to keep me after I was saved, was what I could not see.
I made known my difficulty to a Christian business man whom I occasionally met, and he said to me,
“My dear friend, you have no idea of what you will be the moment you cast yourself upon Christ as your Saviour. You will be a new creature in Christ; born of God; the possessor of a new life. The Holy Ghost will dwell within you, and the power of the living Christ will rest upon you. You will be in Christ, and find it just as easy then to live to Christ, and for Christ, as you do now without Him find it impossible to do.”
That was a new revelation to me. Yet it was clear enough in the Word of God. Coming to Christ as a sinner, believing in Him, I would then be born of God, in-dwelt by the Spirit, strengthened by the Lord, and upheld in God’s everlasting arms. I saw that my first business was to come to the Lord Jesus as a lost and helpless sinner, and cast myself upon Him for deliverance and salvation, and He had pledged His Word to receive me.
I did go to Him, sinner as I was, without merit, without strength, and He received me, saved me, and made me glad. And He will receive you too,—only trust Him.
ML 12/28/1941