The Proof of Conversion

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. —Job 1:22

There are many women who are angry with God because they feel He did not give them good looks, and so men find them unattractive. Perhaps you feel this way. Let me ask you a question: Do you wish you looked different, that you were better-looking than you are? I suppose we all wish that. But maybe, one day, when we get to heaven, we’ll see it was a particular kindness, which we couldn’t see at the time, that God made us just as we are. Do you know what God wants to achieve in you and me? He wants us to come to terms with our looks, with our gifts, with our limitations, with our place in society, with our parents, with the way we’ve been treated, and to learn to like ourselves like that. One of the greatest evidences of grace is that we like ourselves just as we are.

The proof of conversion is that you see through to the true God and don’t let circumstances divert you. I have often been amazed how black people in the Deep South ever became saved when I consider how badly their masters treated them. Yet they heard talk of heaven and knew one day they were going there, where they would be out of their misery. They could identify with that. That’s why they were converted. God has a way of getting us past our circumstances. No matter how dreadful our experiences might have been, God has a way of reaching us, and the most unlikely person can be the most glorious convert. The experiences that may have caused us to feel the deepest bitterness can turn out to be our salvation. God has designed all things to get us to look to Him.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).