Nobody likes being interfered with! The fact is, of course, that nothing is sweeter to any man than being allowed to pursue his own inclination without any check or hindrance. Still, in the present era of huge populations and much legislation, we do get in one another's way considerably, and nobody goes very far without being pulled up and checked in innumerable directions. We do not like it, but we have to suffer it.
During war times a good many people seem rather annoyed with God because He does not interfere on the side they favor. Yet how would they like Him to interfere with their lives? How would you like Him to interfere in yours?
Zinoveiff, a Russian leader who once attained a transient notoriety, declared that, "The Communist Party cannot tolerate interference by God in critical moments; and for candidates who hesitate to renounce God we have no room." Just exactly how they propose effectually to keep God at a distance is not stated, but they do not hesitate in their actions towards their fellow-mortals, for they aim at producing a state of things where atheism shall be supreme.
Is God's interference then a thing to be always dreaded? By no means. With many of us, His hand in interference has been among the most blessed events of our lives. He loves to interfere in grace.
Years ago in the city of Winchester a young man named George Mason was sentenced to death for murder. As a little lad of eight, he had lost his mother. She had been the only tender influence in his life. His father brought him up an atheist, and from his earliest years his companionship was in a company of infidels who sometimes discussed the Bible verse by verse in order to make it a subject of ridicule. While still quite young, he shot and killed an army sergeant near Portsmouth. When tried and sentenced to death by Justice Hawkins, he cursed the judge from the dock; but shortly after conviction he was soundly converted to God. Then he penciled a plea for pardon for that offense which deeply touched the judge. To the prison chaplain he said, "I never knew what happiness or kindness was until I came here." To the clergyman who finally attended him on the scaffold he gave this message: "I thank you for coming to see me, a murderer, and I hope you will use my experience of life as you please to assist others to the right road. He whom you visited has been an atheist, a burglar, and a drug addict; but now, by the help of God, he is a penitent, and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ."
Admittedly this was a very extreme case, but God interfered and saved his soul!
More than nineteen centuries ago one Saul was born at Tarsus in Asia Minor. He was no atheist! On the contrary, he was tremendously religious. Yet no greater opponent of Christ ever lived. As the leader of a whirlwind crusade against Christians he was riding post-haste to Damascus when an act of divine interference took place, and he saw the very Christ whom he hated in a blaze of heavenly glory that was indescribable. The effect was instantaneous and revolutionary; and he who was before "a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious," obtained mercy. Later on he has put on record that "The grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant," and that "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. 1:13-1513Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:13‑15).
Has there been a divine intervention of this sort in your life yet? Do not shrink from it, but on the contrary invite the hand of love that intervenes. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Let that love reach your heart, and your life will be transformed.
Depend upon it, an hour of divine interference rapidly approaches for every one of us. The world grows old and weary in sin. The present epoch, "the acceptable year of our Lord," is to be succeeded by "the day of vengeance of our God." Then age-long iniquity shall be abolished, wrongs righted, sin judged, righteousness established: "So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth." Psa. 58:1111So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. (Psalm 58:11). How can you face that day except you know salvation in this day, through faith in the precious blood of Christ?