One Sunday afternoon, David excused himself after the dinner dishes had been cleared and put away. As was their custom, long ingrained into their hearts and minds, the afternoon was given to Bible reading or other religious books, and they would then share each other’s thoughts; but David was pressed more than ever to get alone with God.
He walked across the yard and into the woods, thankful for the coolness offered by the shade. Their pastor had challenged them that morning to consider their love for God, explaining that, as religious people, we often move through our religious motions only because it is the thing to do, not out of a heart for God. The thought had stopped David short, and he knew he needed to give it some private thought.
He prayed as he walked all afternoon, but today, his prayers were halted and disjointed as he sought to pray in earnest, trying to focus on who God was and not on what He did. He had been reading First John that morning, and now one verse kept flashing through his mind: We love him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
“We love him, because he first loved us,” he mused.
As the sun began to dip closer to the horizon, suddenly it all became clear, and the truth nearly took his breath away.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). He fell to his knees, trembling, and looked up into the treetops. “Oh Father, how could I have ever thought that anything at all was required by my hands?” He raised his hands and looked at them as though they belonged to someone else. “How could these hands do anything?” he clutched his chest. “How could this heart ever love Thee enough?” David buried his head in his hands and wept. “It is all of Thee, O Lord. Thou hast shed abroad in our hearts Thy love by the Holy Ghost which Thou hast given to us” (Romans 5:5).
He raised his tear-washed face and beheld the glory of God as never before, for the first time understanding true salvation. “Not by works of righteous which we have done, but according to Thy mercy Thou hast saved us” (Titus 3:5). O Father, why did I not see this before?”
You were too busy trying to earn my love, my son. David gasped at the clarity of the thought. “He is right,” he whispered. “I thought I needed to do something, but there is nothing to be done but receive Thy forgiveness, Lord. And yet now the desire to serve Thee is fourfold as great! Can you use this weak, wretched man, O Lord? Is there a task for me, dear Father?” He smiled weakly. “I believe I have made my calling sure.”
He rose to his feet, feeling light as a feather. The heavy burden of sin and misunderstanding was gone. All he wanted to do now was to learn of his Lord and Master.
Beyond Common Sense 