Last Sunday, a
young man came to see me after our church service. He is the kind of guy who
shows up at church once in a while and then disappears for a season. My guess
is that he goes around churches sampling sermons and looking for answers. On
this visit, he asked that I help him to overcome a failure in his life, and it
was a failure to progress. He said that his greatest problem is that he does
not believe in himself. Could I help him believe in himself so that he could
become successful?
I asked him
whether he was a Christian. His answer was, “Do I really need to be a Christian
in order to be successful? Are you telling me that all those successful people
out there are Christians? Aren’t there general principles that I can apply to
my life—whether I am a Christian or not—that can catapult me to success?” I
challenged him to answer that question himself. After all, I was sure he had
done enough rounds among motivational speakers to have the answer.
“That is the problem,”
he said, “I have been told that such principles exist and I have tried them.
They seem to work for a while and then I am back to my old self again. I want
you to help me find that formula that will help me go forward and never slide
back to the place where I do not believe in myself.” To cut the long story
short, I finally persuaded him of the need for reconciliation with God before
anyone can break free from the frustrating rut that God locks unreconciled
sinners in.
I gave him a
booklet to read, entitled, What is a
Biblical Christian? When we met the following day, he was honest enough to
tell me that he was disappointed with what he read because it was not telling
him what he wanted to hear. “What I want to know is how I can be successful.
This booklet did not say anything about that.” I repeated what I told him
earlier. What he needed was not belief in himself but belief in a Saviour sent
from heaven. He needed forgiveness as a foundation for his life. Continue at Conrad Mbewe
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