By Taylor MacHenry

Perhaps I am just impatient.

I lack the peace at heart to allow God in His good time to act. Yet I keep trying without patience, because as a human being, I lack faith.

Yes, I am a Christian, but I am also, as the Apostle Paul said of himself, “Chief among sinners.” I certainly cannot hold my head high as a pious man.

Yet as a sinner who is also certain of his Salvation because I have repented and I try my best to live in the Will of God, and because I Believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God who is Himself God in the person of Christ, and because I proclaim Christ Jesus my Lord and Master above all governments and powers, I am saved.

By the Grace given to me through the unending Love of God and the sacrifice on the cross of my Lord and Savior, I am Justified before God and given forgiveness so that I can remain in the Kingdom of Heaven before our Lord for eternity.

But back to my impatience. What causes me this impatience?

My efforts for others who are not yet believers in Jesus Christ and they do not relent in their unbelief. They do not repent nor do they accept and believe and proclaim Christ their Lord. I have shared the Truth of Jesus Christ with them, and the Holy Spirit has knocked on the doors to their hearts. Some of them I have gone so far as to give them Bible and Study Bibles, some of them leather-bound with their names on them, as I expressed my love for them as their genuine friend. And I want them in Heaven with me.

I will never stop praying for these people, nor trying for them, because I love them as God also loves them. Even those who scorn me, mock me for my faith, and speak harshly of me for my faith, and say that God is not real but merely a myth made up in antiquity by frightened souls. A projection of humanity because of our need for a deity.

I will not stop loving them and praying for them and trying to open their eyes to Christ. Because that is what Jesus commanded me, as well as all His believers, to do. It is the purpose of His Great Commission to all who believe in Him.

In the New Testament, the book of Matthew, chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, God’s Word tells us the final Commandment that Jesus gave to all of us:

“All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And just because a person rejects God and the Salvation of Jesus Christ, and His redeeming Grace, does not mean that we just walk away. We must not stop trying for that person. Especially if that person is someone you love, a friend or a family member.

We pray for him or her, and we love that person, showing him or her the example of Jesus and what Christ teaches us to do. Which is to Love above all things, to Forgive everything and to Not Judge anyone because Judgment will only be done by God Himself.

I am sure that the Apostle Paul, in his service to Christ, taking the Gospel to all nations, establishing churches throughout the known world of his time, he must have suffered impatience and disappointment even more than I do.

And God reminded Paul that all will not be saved. Not even all of the Israelites, God’s own chosen people. However, God will deal with those people in His time, not ours. Jesus never said for any of us to give up trying. He only reminds us that all will not be saved, so don’t be too disappointed. We did our best for them because God loves them and wants them to be saved. Yet they will refuse. But we must keep trying.

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul reminded his followers in Rome of this fact and that we should remain undaunted in our mission. He wrote these words in Romans, chapter 10, verses 5 through Romans, chapter 11, verse 10, (English Standard Version) which should help and encourage us all:

The Apostle Paul’s Message of Salvation to All:

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

“For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

“As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’

“But they have not all obeyed the Gospel.

For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’

“So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

“But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have, for
‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.’

“But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’

“Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
‘I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’

“But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’

“I ask, then, has God rejected his people?

“By no means!

“For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

“’Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.’

“But what is God’s reply to him?

“’I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’

“So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

“What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,
‘“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.’
“And David says,
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever.'”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 10:5–11:10.