Now is the Time to Serve the Lord

Have you been thinking about giving your life to Jesus Christ? Do you always find a reason to push the thought to the back of your mind or have you been avoiding the question of your salvation altogether? The grave is filled with people who had plans to one day serve the Lord but never did. You see, Satan often uses procrastination, to keep people from receiving God’s gift of salvation.

This is no new trick. According to Luke 9:1-62, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, a man stopped him and said “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus basically told the man he did not have a permanent residence. We call this homeless today. Jesus asked another man to follow him and the man replied, “let me first go bury my father.” We don’t know if the man’s father was sick or if he was simply saying after his father dies he would follow Christ. Jesus responded by saying, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

A third man said to Jesus, ” “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” This man seemed to be a family man, which is honorable. However, Jesus was calling for him to inconvenience himself to some degree to follow him, which meant he would have to leave the life he had grown accustomed to and trust God. Maybe the man felt as if the price of not being able to spend time with his family and friends as often as he wanted, was too big of a price to pay at that point in time in his life. Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Here’s the thing. All of these men knew they were lacking a relationship with God. They all knew they needed to follow Christ. However, they were not ready to abandoned their old lives to follow Christ. Jesus loved them. He did not shy away from letting these men know the cost they would pay to follow him.

Instead of rejecting Christ outright, the men just said we will follow you later. They assumed they would have time in the future to one day follow Christ. Satan deceived them by making them believe they would have time to get right with God. The truth is, tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

James 4:13-14 says Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

The deception of procrastination is one of Satan’s oldest tricks to keep people from entering the kingdom of God. You see, Satan knows he will never enter God’s kingdom and he does not want us to enter either. So he tries to make us think we have more time than we actually have to receive salvation.

Don’t allow Satan to trick you. Don’t believe his lies. Don’t put off tomorrow what you know you should do today. Now is the time to repent of your sins, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Beloved, Jesus loves you dearly. He is bidding you to come to him now. He wants you to receive God’s gift of eternal life.

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2