The other day I was approaching a traffic light that was green. I knew it was going to turn yellow soon but didn’t know when so I approached it with caution. There came a point when approaching it that I knew even if the light turned yellow I was going to have to keep going. It was what is commonly referred to as “the point of no return”. Ever been faced with such a situation?
The other night my wife and I were with some friends and we were talking about different cultures reaching their “point of no return” regarding the direction they were going. We talked about how America is speedily reaching its point of no return as it is racing as far from God and the Judeo-Christian values it was founded and built upon. Some may argue that there is no such point for a culture, a country, a family, or even an individual. We like to hold out hope that the God of the impossible, the Judea-Christian God, can always reach and restore those who are far from Him, and He’s more than able to do so. But the problem with this line of thought is that while they believe God is sovereign and there is nothing He can’t do, they forget that He’s given humanity a free will to choose whether or not to serve Him, and with that free will He will respect each person’s decision.
While there have been some who many thought would never change or give their lives to following and serving Jesus were reached, a testament of His abilities to reach people especially when prayer is involved, there are many more that won’t be reached because they’ve passed the point of no return. At some point in their life they made a conscious decision to have nothing to do with God, or to even allow Him to be a part of their lives, and God has honored that decision. Does that mean we don’t need to pray for those who seem to be unreachable with the Gospel? Absolutely not! We need to keep praying for them because we don’t know what is ahead, and it could be Gods response to our prayers that afford them more time in this life to change their mind.
Only God, and I want to emphasize only God, knows when a person has gone past the “point of no return” and that they will not have any more opportunities to accept and follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior. With that in mind, we need to keep reaching out to and praying for people, especially loved ones that don’t truly have a saving relationship with Jesus, that God will in some way be able to capture their hearts for salvation. Time is short and eternity lies in the balance. Eternity in Hell is an eternity no one really wants, but sadly enough many won’t believe that statement until they are there and it’s too late.
There are people that are so adamant against the God of the Judeo-Christian faith that they will not hear the Gospel, and in some cases will even fervently oppose Him and anyone who represents Jesus one way or another. Some will even go so far as to keep their eyes out for any possible discrepancy in a Christian’s life, or to twist and misrepresent things spoken by them, thereby giving them more of an excuse to reject Jesus. But, when it’s all said and done, when they stand before the God of all creation, the only thing they will be judged for is what they did with Jesus, and any excuses they have to offer now will not be allowed then. God can reach these people, but we need to keep them in prayer and hope they haven’t gone past the point of no return, the point that ONLY God knows.
Let’s keep these people in prayer, asking God that they have an encounter with the risen Savior, Jesus.
John Johansson
