In a Hurry

The last several days I’ve been privileged to be part of a large gospel effort, focusing largely on door-to-door visiting. The responses have been varied, as usual. Most are polite, many seem disinterested, others are rude, and some are friendly and glad to see us.

“In a hurry,” one man told me when I asked if I could show him a verse from the Bible. He wasn’t the only one; it was a response we had heard several times. It made me think of the hymn,

“Sunk in ruin, sin, and misery,
Bound by Satan’s captive chain,
Guided by his artful treachery,
Hurrying on to endless pain;
My Redeemer, my Redeemer,
Plucked me as a brand from hell.”

Yes, hurrying on, hurtling toward an infinity of suffering and regret, with no time for eternity. The lost are indeed in a hurry.

Is God in a hurry? “The Lord is not slow about His promise…but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) God is in no hurry to bring judgment upon sinners. Rather, we read, “Thou art a God ready to pardon.” (Neh. 9:17). It has been said that the only time that the Bible depicts God the Father as being in a hurry, is when the father of the prodigal son ran to meet his repentant boy. So yes, God is eager—perhaps we may even say reverently that He is in a hurry—to forgive.

The lost are hurrying to a Christless eternity of agony. God is hurrying to intercept them with His forgiveness. Have we who call ourselves Christians got any urgency at all about their souls?