A man facing a seemingly deadly situation, had a series of amazing interventions and the arrival of a rescuer just in the nick of time who was his only hope. Maybe that's not just a story from the news, but it's your story. If it's not your story, it could be. It's the story of millions whose only hope was a rescue...a spiritual rescue.
There are eight powerful words from Zephaniah 3:17 in God's Word. It simply says, "The Lord your God...is mighty to save." He really is. He has both the love and the power to do whatever it takes to save you from the emptiness and turbulence of a life away from God and from the awful agony of an eternity without Him. God is in the saving business.
The Bible says that we're all in a deadly situation from which we cannot save ourselves, and often we don't even know the danger we're in. The Bible says we are "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12) - away from the source of our life because we've hijacked our life from Him. It's called sin, which is a lifetime of willful choices that have ignored and disobeyed God's laws. The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We're overboard, we're drifting, we're dying.
Along the way, the One who is "mighty to save" has sent you some rafts that would keep you afloat until you could find the real Rescuer. You are alive today by His grace and His intervention in ways you don't even know. He's wanted you to have a chance to grab the hand of His Son, the Rescuer from heaven. One day you will "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," and your only hope is those four words, "You are with Me." If Jesus isn't with you when you enter eternity, you are without hope. If He is with you, you will be in heaven forever.
Today, the nail-pierced hand of heaven's Rescuer is reaching for you. The nail prints are there because He had to die so you could live. He took the penalty for your sin on that awful cross. The choice you make as Jesus reaches to rescue you, will define your eternity. How do you grab His hand? You tell Him, "Jesus, I've done it my way long enough. You died for my sin, and I'm giving myself to You because You are my hope." In that moment, you will be saved, you will be rescued, and you will be safe.
None of us knows how much longer we have to choose life. Let today be the day you grab the hand of that One who is mighty to save.