We all have them, in different forms, but each at one time or another will have the question through circumstances that say, “What are you going to do now?” “Where will you seek comfort?” “Who do you say that I am?”

I have had several “Come to Jesus moments” in my life. Some of those moments have literally cut me to the core of my being, peeled back layers of self that to be honest I did NOT want to see. Moments where I was pretty sure I would NEVER be okay again. Moments that I had to choose to either draw nearer to my Savior or turn away and seek my own solution, my path against what I knew in my heart God was calling me to do. Sometimes these things came by my own behavior and bad chooses and at other times they were forced upon me. Either way, they come and it is those moments that define us, grow us, change us forever.

When the nights are long and the pain is so great whether physical or mental that you feel you just cannot, this is a great Psalm to think on and read.

Psalm 77: 1-14 “I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. 2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. 4 You kept my eyes from closing. I was too troubled to speak. I thought about the former days, the years long ago; 6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired; 7 Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? 10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal; the years of the right hand of the Most High.” 11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. 13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

At the time of your “Come to Jesus moment” you probably feel forsaken, sucker punched below the belt; almost as though God is not there, He cannot hear your distress. But these moments are Holy moments, moments where God wants you to lean in and listen. Moments where he wants to mature your faith and show you who he is. Moments when you realize that you cannot do life without him. Sitting on the fence with your legs dangling on either side is no longer an option. We can go back in scripture and see the goodness of God, we can remember that even when his children were complacent, or in rebellion and sin He was there allowing the pain and discomfort for a season, but not forever. Some seasons are longer than others, and I think it is a matter of how hard your heart is.

Psalm 78:12-16 we read these reminders of what God did for his rebellious sinful children. He had delivered them, promised them a new land and yet they did not get his goodness, deliberately rebelled and sinned. Demanded and acted like spoiled kids.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. 14 He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. 15 He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; 16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.

Even though they were demanding and sinning willfully God took care of them. He was angry very angry. Psalm 78:21 “When the Lord heard them, he was angry, very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel.” And he gave them what they wanted, manna fell from the skies, men ate the bread of angels it tells us in verse 25. He sent them all the food they could eat. He rained meat down on them like dust…they ate until they had more than enough. Time and again God would deliver, feed, cover, help and time and again they would sin and rebel and complain. And he would forgive and answer and help. Why? Verse 39 tells us why; “He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.”

God knows how we are made, He who formed our hearts, our minds, our souls knows us better than we know us or even our parents know us. He sees those corners of our hearts that we refuse to surrender, we refuse to give up that sin, we refuse to tame our tongue, we refuse to listen. And sometimes we can seem to be doing all the right things and we still get a hard “Come to Jesus moment.” His desire is to never leave us as we are. He grows us through adversity and times of drought. But we need to look back in our own lives and see how many times he rescued us, how many times he gave us good gifts when we did not deserve them. God will move heaven and earth to come rescue the one. He will reach so low, so far that when we truly look at it, we will fall down on our knees and say thank you!

This hardship, this hurt whatever form it comes in is not meant to kill us but to turn us to the One, the only One who has the power to redeem, to forgive, to heal, to change, to mold and make us, fit for the kingdom of God, where we one day will live. He bought us with a price, his life. We are his sheep and He is a good shepherd and because of that we must have those hard seasons, those Come to Jesus moments.” They change us, the stretch us and wake us up to the reality that we need Him (Jesus) every moment of every day. We are feeble, fumbling, wicked at birth people and our time on earth is short, we must be fully surrendered and committed to our Lord and Savior.

Have you had a “Come to Jesus moment?” What will you do with it? Will you yell, rebel, kick and scream? Or, will you lean in close, listen to the voice of your Shepherd, read his word, pray and seek His face and wait to see what will happen. Maybe it won’t have a good ending according to man’s idea of a good ending, and maybe it will. Maybe you will get well, maybe you won’t. I can guarantee that when you lean in, the outcome does not matter, your walk does. And if when you leave this earth you are stripped of everything you thought you needed, but your soul is free and thriving in Jesus and your destination is eternity with God, it will not matter.

“Come to Jesus moments are holy, blessed times indeed!”