I can’t wait to get to heaven to ask the Lord which of my multiple surrenders he actually accepted. If I was pressed to identify a specific time it would probably be in 1986 when I was forty-three. That is when I know I reached the end of me and became willing to let God run my life. I decided and accepted that my life was truly none of my business. I laid down my rebellion and clearly saw that I was a man with a depraved, self-seeking heart. I knew that by the righteous judgment of God I deserved death. I fully accepted that truth and gave myself over to it.
I am not a ‘salvation inspector’ and I don’t judge the spiritual condition of others. I’ve had enough difficulty dealing with my own! A person’s spiritual condition is between them and God. However, I know there are many people who secretly fret over the authenticity of their relationship with Christ. There are lots of reasons that fuel this worry, but the biggest is a lack of fruit. By lack of fruit I mean an absence of love, joy, peace and the other character traits of Christ that are supposed to be present in the life of a Christian. In America today it is difficult to tell the difference between Christians and non-Christians, based on how they live and what they do. As it has been said, if many of us were put on trial for being Christians there might not be enough evidence to convict us. The reason for the lack of evidence is what the Apostle Paul called carnality or being fleshly. It is quite possible for Christians to live in a carnal condition. Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth acknowledge and verify the existence of carnal Christian people – People who have been saved by grace and regenerated but continue to live by their own self-will.
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