"Who told you about me? Someone did, else you could not have known." So said a young man to an evangelist he had heard speaking the night before. The reply he received was, "God knows all about you, and He tells me what to say.”
“You might as well have called out my name last night," said the young man. "Some turned around to look at me while you were speaking.”
“My instructions are to open your eyes; to turn you from darkness to light; and to bring you from the power of Satan to God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins. When a man's eyes are opened, he sees and knows that he is lost, and that there is nothing between him and hell. If you were to die as you are, where would you go?”
“Ah," he replied, "I know only too well. I have known this for nearly three weeks.”
“Why then did you not come before?”
“I have come three or four times to your gate, but could not summon courage to come in. I thought it would be so foolish to tell you my fears. You would think I had committed murder, or gone out of my mind. I have prayed and read the Bible, and it only makes me feel worse and worse. I have been trying to live a better life; but I get nowhere. On Sunday I heard what you said about the house that was built on sand.”
The preacher interrupted him by saying, "Do you understand now about building on the Rock?”
“Yes," he said, with a smile; "I think I see that instead of doing my best, I ought to rest on the finished work of Christ.”
“Have you done so?”
“I have tried to, but I do not feel any better.”
“Wanting to feel," said the preacher, "is a device of the devil to keep you from salvation. It is surprising how he tries every one with that device, and hinders many. If you believe that Christ died for you, you should thank Him for it.”
“How can I thank. Him if I don't feel saved?”
“My dear man," said the preacher, "I do not want you to thank Him for what you feel, but for what He did. Did He die for you or not? If He did, then thank Him! Tell Him, if you like, how unworthy you are to do so; but thank Him nevertheless.”
“Unworthy enough," he muttered. "He will see what a hypocrite I am, and send me away.”
As they knelt the young man looked up and said, "I feel better already.”
“Oh, never mind your feelings," said the preacher. "Thank and praise God—say, 'Glory be to God; Jesus died for me'!”
Soon the young man came into joy and liberty. He exclaimed in glad tones, "How wonderful! I am saved! I am sure I am.”
It is God who searches the heart; and He it is who knows all about us. He is the One who by His Spirit draws the erring and the lost to Jesus. The devil will indeed hinder if he can by leading the tried soul to depend upon his feelings. But God leads on, showing that His Word gives the only' ground of rest; and that salvation comes through faith and is never founded upon feelings.