Who Do You Think Will Save You?

Many years ago I had a unique opportunity. Though the story is long and I don’t have time to tell it here, I had the opportunity to be around someone who truly thought he was going to die. It was part of a gag that was intended to be funny but he didn’t know about it. He found himself with a hood over his face, his hands and feet duct taped together and he thought he was going to be killed. As he lay on the ground the first words out of his mouth were, “Save me Jesus”; “Help me Jesus”. After it was all over and we were sitting around the restaurant table…after all, you should take a guy to dinner when you scare him like that…he shared that when he thought he was going to die, his first thought was to cry out to Jesus because he could think of no one else who could save him. He has used this experience many times in talking about what it felt like to truly think you were going to die and how Jesus came to his mind right away. Not many of us have this kind of experience…and that’s a good thing!

I have thought about this a lot over the past 25 years or so. Would I cry out to Jesus for salvation? Would you? Is Jesus so fresh in your mind…so real to you that He is the One you would cry out to? In the grouping of Psalms 67-72, many of the psalms deal with God’s saving power; not so much saving from sin but saving from enemies. Here is what we read in a portion of Psalm 69: Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God. I believe that God desires to be the first One we cry out to when we are in trouble. But that won’t happen if we are not in a close relationship with Him. My friend who had this experience was very close to Jesus. Jesus was His friend. I hope that none of us are ever in a situation where we think we are close to an unexpected death; but if we find ourselves there, and even if we don’t, we should want the kind of intimacy with Jesus that my friend had and still has. Draw near to Jesus!