Alice looked very unhappy when our Sunday school class was over. She seemed to want to stay and talk, so we sat by ourselves in a corner, and she told me that she wished to be saved.
“Go home to your room,” I said to Alice, “and in the presence of God, alone with Himself, get down on your knees and turn to John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Then, instead of the word ‘world’ and the word ‘whosoever’ just put your name in each place and see how it will fit you.”
The following week, even before Sunday school started, Alice came up to me smiling and happy.
“I want to thank you, sir, that I am saved now.”
“Thank God! When did that take place?”
“Last Sunday afternoon. I went home and read the verse you told me, and put my name in, and it just fitted me, and I thank God for it.”
Dear child, have you found out yet that you are a guilty sinner; exposed to the judgment of a sin-hating God? Perhaps you are trying to love God, or trying to serve God in order to be saved? If so, you are altogether wrong.
It is not your love to God, but His love to you, that you need.
God’s part was the loving and the giving; yours is the believing and the having.
ML 07/22/1951