About 14 years ago, while we were holding evangelistic meetings in a Central African country, we were called to a nearby neighbourhood to minister to a young woman who had just been brought back from the hospital because doctors couldn’t help her anymore. Her situation was bad. You could see the clear indications of an imminent negative event – the frailty, the paleness, the distortions of some strategic parts of her body, the racing breath, and so on.
That young woman needed God. Only God could intervene in her situation. She needed to be at peace with God so that she could approach Him as a member of His family. If, on the other hand, healing didn’t occur, she could die peacefully knowing that she had made peace with God.
When we arrived at her place, we talked to her about the One that she needed in her life and situation. But she was unwilling to let go of her gods and fetish affiliations that were already failing her at her hour of need. She asked to consult with her kinsmen to take a decision – for Christ or for the demons that they venerated. After their meeting, she gave us feedback – she was unwilling to leave her deceptive ‘masters’ to cleave to the living God who could intervene in the situation of her body and soul. People take decisions for others when they think that they are unable to do so effectively. It is good to have godly people by one’s death bed! Why did she need her kinsmen to take that all-important decision for her? Custom? I wish she damned the consequences, if any, and went ahead to decide for Christ.
I was sad. I told her that it was a pity that her kinsmen decided against God at a time that she needed their support for a good decision and that she agreed with them.
She passed shortly thereafter. She slipped into eternity, unprepared. None of those kinsmen died with her. She died all by herself. All alone. The kinsmen couldn’t decide to keep her alive. She faced the God that she had rejected, all alone! Why would you need the approval of kinsmen, social media cronies, or even society to make the right decision? When it comes to eternal matters, ‘you are just on your own’!
Decisions.
She could have decided for life, she could have decided for Jesus, but she clung to death, she clung to powerless entities – powerless when it comes to imparting eternal life.
Decisions.
We exhude our decisions.
What are you doing with the chance that you have today to make the ultimate decision for Christ?
Tomorrow might be too late.
Will you decide for Christ today?