My Rocky Road to Salvation

If my life had been the product of human reasoning and deduction, devoid of any divine interference, I wouldn’t be here talking to you. I can’t imagine where I would be instead, but I am often filled with astonishment that I’m on this path when I consider my life. God’s sovereign choices for my life seem to have been designed to result in a rocky road to salvation. Why did God erect so many obstacles between my heart and His?

I Wouldn’t Value an Easy Road to Salvation

For starters, I don’t value things that come easy. And if I look at the whole of God’s Word, I don’t think He does either. He is Truth and exquisite simplicity, but God is NOT easy and neither are His ways. A gondola lift ride up a mountain results in the same spectacular view as the climb, but it lacks the reward of self-respect and joy that completing a difficult climb produces. We may be tempted by things that come easy (And how!) but we were not created to derive any true satisfaction from them…BY DESIGN.

There has been nothing easy about my road to salvation. In fact, there is no earthly reason or logic to my relationship with God. To a reasonable, human mind, it makes perfect sense that I ran from God and all things churchy. What doesn’t make sense to that same earthly mind is why I stopped running. Make no mistake, The Great Lie about God is quite sensible to the mind of the flesh. Every step I made toward Jesus Christ was a battle between Divine Truth and the well-reasoned Lie. My road to salvation was bloody and hard. It’s also a priceless picture of how much God loves me, and I hold it in my heart like a jewel.

I Wouldn’t Trust an Easy Road to Salvation

In my 41 years, I’ve had quite a few experiences with ‘easy.’ And I’ve yet to meet an ‘easy’ that didn’t come riddled with strings and hidden snares and balloon payments that bankrupt the very soul. I don’t trust ‘easy.’ “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” And outside of Jesus Christ, that’s as true a statement as I’ve heard. “But Jennifer, salvation is free! Freely offered to all and freely given to the repentant hearts.” That’s true, but it’s not the whole truth, is it?

I am utterly redeemed, forgiven of every sin, and made whole – a new creation indwelt by the life of Jesus Christ, my Savior and LORD. This miraculous, transcendent gift of Life Eternal is mine…in exchange for my broken, diseased, foolish, and wicked life. God gives us His priceless Pearl in exchange for our steaming, stinking refuse. How is this not an ‘easy’ deal for us to take? Every time the Cross comes for something I love, I ask that question. But despite that truth, there’s nothing easy in the Gethsemane surrender I experience. There is a definite cost! I know that what I’m holding onto is dirt which God will exchange with gold, but even that is not enough to prevent the sweat and tears of surrender.

The road to salvation isn’t easy, and the narrow path that comes after isn’t either. But it is entirely trustworthy, because God lays it all out with nothing hidden: All of me for all of Jesus. I don’t always know what ways, beliefs, things, and people I’m still holding tight. The Holy Spirit has to show me. But once He shows me, the deal is the same—ALL of me for ALL of Him.

A Rocky Road to Salvation is a Gift

Every step I took toward Jesus Christ was deliberate. I did not come to the Lord lightly or on a whim. War brought me here, a war in my mind and a war in my heart. It was not a war of might but of will. And though it be scorned or mocked or trivialized, I know that my road to salvation wasn’t easy and it didn’t just happen. I fought Love with all I had – and I had plenty of wicked in my arsenal – but in the end, Love was more powerful than the Lie. My life is so miraculous, it does nothing but stun me!

I love my bloody road to salvation. It is precious to me beyond words, and I just wanted to share that with you.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 KJV