FAITH GUARANTEED TO LAST
God loves us so much that He uses whatever it takes to bring us to faith in Him. For me, it was an old-fashioned altar call. For my sister in law, Debbie, it was a Slo Poke, the caramel sucker guaranteed to be the longest-lasting candy on earth.
Debbie’s love for Slo Pokes brought her to Jesus in a roundabout way.
"Everybody who brings a friend to church gets a Slo Poke,” she told her parents, grabbed her brother, and raced to catch the Baptist bus. She heard the Gospel, got the sucker and asked Jesus into her heart. But over time, her faith was pulled apart and hanging by a thread.
Like so many, Debbie’s sweet life turned bitter; it felt like God yanked His love from her hands. Yet deep down, she dared to believe.
“I never stopped praying," she says. In her soul’s desperate places, a faint, familiar Presence protected her from being destroyed.
That’s what’s so amazing about the tender faith of Slo Poke believers. It’s sure to last forever, because God's goodness remains at the core.
If the world has stretched you to the limit, chewed you up and spit you out, you may wonder if Someone as sweet as Jesus would want to stay in your sticky, little hands.
But hear the Gospel Truth: When you accept Jesus, He’s your Savior forever. When you slip up and let go, He continues to hang on.
Jesus said, “I am in my Father, and you are in Me and I am in you.” No matter what you did, you can't shake God loose because His Spirit dwells within.
Shame says that you’re too late; gone too far. The bus left you behind years ago.
But God's grace patiently waits at the corner of your indecision, His door open wide. His greatest desire is to carry you all the way Home.
"I will never leave you nor forsake you," Jesus says. (Hebrews 13:5)
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, more than some quick sugar high that you and I picked up in Sunday School. Jesus Christ is our Salvation, the Bread that sustained us through the endless valleys, the Water that quenched us in the wastelands.
Though we fail, God’s love for us never will. It’s guaranteed to last forever, longer than heaven and earth.
Never, ever discount your faith, sweet, tenacious child of God. If you’re a Slo Poke believer, you’re His, you’re back, and you’re here to stay.