Daily devotional, October 21, 2023 The snail
"And with perseverance, the snail reached the ark." - Dr. Charles Spurgeon
The quote mentioned above was very visual to me. I was seeing a snail, painstakingly journeying towards Noah’s Ark, wanting to be saved from the Great Flood. To me, the author of that quote, Dr. Charles Spurgeon accurately captured God’s wonderful mercy for each of us, as he patiently waits for us to make our way to His heart.
One of the common hindrances to having a personal relationship with the Lord is a person’s guilt feelings towards his sins, failures, and past mistakes. We can hear some people say that they would surrender their life to Christ once they have “fully reformed” and have achieved a certain level of righteousness befitting a Christian. But this will never get us on track in our journey to the Lord’s heart, since we can never attain the standard of righteousness of the Lord if not for Jesus Christ. Jesus has already paid the price for the forgiveness of our sins, and all we have to do is to accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
My favorite pastor uses the act of taking a shower as an analogy to explain how erroneous it is to think that we should be perfect first before submitting ourselves to God. He says, one does not clean himself before taking a shower because the act of showering itself will cleanse him. The same goes with surrendering our life to Christ. Jesus calls on us to come to Him so that He can wash away our sins, and be the new creation He designed us to be. In Romans 5:10 it was said: “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
We should accept this saving grace while we can. No matter how slow we are in our journey to Christ-likeness, we can be sure that the Lord is patiently waiting for us to turn over a new leaf, and be the God-fearing person He wants us to be. 2 Peter 3:9 sums up the Lord’s willingness to forgive and patience towards us: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
He fully understands that as human beings, we cannot outrightly be perfect, and so He offers his grace and forgiveness as we strive to live a life that is pleasing to Him. Isaiah 43:25 proves how loving God is as He goes as far as saying that He can forget about all the mistakes that we have done: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Let us take heart in the fact that the Lord patiently watches and waits for us no matter how slow our journey is towards Him. As long as we remain on the right track, we know that He is our Lord, and we are slowly but surely reflecting his light on others, we will reach eternity with him.
Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on Romans 5 to dig deeper on today’s topic.
Reflection Question: Where are you in your journey to the Lord’s heart? Do you believe He is willing to meet you wherever you stand?
Conversation with the Lord: Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for being so patient and merciful to me, as I transform into the God-fearing person you would like me to be. I still make mistakes, and I am far from being perfect but I want you to know that I am fully committed to living a life that is pleasing to you. So please send me the Holy Spirit and empower me to change for the better, so that I can abide by you and shine your light on others too. Amen.