I started reading through Jack Deere’s autobiography, Even in Our Darkness. His story so far has been very dark. But I think you’ll appreciate how he came to faith in Jesus:
I’m not sure what prompted me, but on December 18, 1965, at 2 a.m., as I lay in bed in the dark, I asked Bruce how a person gets into heaven.
“You trust Jesus,” he said. “Jesus died on the cross for you. He will forgive you, come into your heart, give you a new life, and never leave.”
“That can’t be true, Bruce,” I said. “What if I do something bad later?”
“Jackie, you will do lots of bad things the rest of your life.”
“But how do you know God will never leave me?”
“Jesus said so.”
“Really?”
“Jesus said in John 10:28, ‘I give my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.’”
Bruce rolled over in his bed and went to sleep.
I stared at the ceiling as the promises rolled over me in waves: He died for you. He will forgive you. He will give you new life.
And the most important:
He will never leave you.
He will never leave you.
He will never leave you.
I let go of something inside me.
I believed (Even in Our Darkness, p. 52).
At this point in Deere’s life’s story, many of the people he loved left him. His father committed suicide. His stepfather died after falling off a pickup truck. His beloved grandmother died of old age. And his mother all but left him for booze.
Maybe everyone you love has left you, too.
But there’s one Person who never will.
The believer’s relationship with Jesus is permanent and irrevocable. Everyone else might leave you, but once He gives you new life—eternal life—He will never leave you, no matter what bad things you do.
