Almost Persuaded

When I was young, my dad was fond of using the famous saying "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." His point being, almost doesn't cut it. You need to give your all and finish what you start.

It always seemed like such a silly saying to me, but as I have gone on in life without him for almost 24 years, I can still hear his voice saying that to me every time I feel like giving up just short of the finish line.

The dictionary defines almost as: "very nearly; all but; slightly short of; not quite."

I was reading this morning in Acts 26 when Paul was making his case before King Agrippa after his own people had viciously turned against him when he became a believer in Christ. Paul was a fierce Pharisee persecuting Christians thinking he was doing God a great service. But one day he had an encounter with Jesus that changed him forever and convinced him of his error.

As he began going from town to town, preaching the gospel, his former fellow Pharisees were beside themselves. They turned on him immediately. I imagine these were people he had known for a lifetime. People he studied with, worked with, lived life with - yet they now hated him and wanted him dead! But his eyes had been opened and he tried to tell them about it. They wouldn't see the truth though, and instead of listening, they relentlessly came after him.

Eventually Paul ended up before King Agrippa just before he was to be sent to stand before Caesar. He gave a compelling message before the King of what Jesus accomplished for man on the cross.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
(Acts 26:28, New King James Version)

How sad. Almost convinced, but not enough to make the decision to believe. What do you think kept him back? My guess would be that he feared man's opinion too much and probably held too much to his material life to want to change. Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage explains it well:

It becomes us, on all occasions, to speak the words of truth and soberness, and then we need not be troubled at the unjust censures of men. Active and laborious followers of the gospel often have been despised as dreamers or madmen, for believing such doctrines and such wonderful facts; and for attesting that the same faith and diligence, and an experience like their own, are necessary to all men, whatever their rank, in order to their salvation.

But apostles and prophets, and the Son of God himself, were exposed to this charge; and none need be moved thereby, when Divine grace has made them wise unto salvation. Agrippa saw a great deal of reason for Christianity. His understanding and judgment were for the time convinced, but his heart was not changed. And his conduct and temper were widely different from the humility and spirituality of the gospel.

Many are almost persuaded to be religious, who are not quite persuaded; they are under strong convictions of their duty, and of the excellence of the ways of God, yet do not pursue their convictions. Paul urged that it was the concern of every one to become a true Christian; that there is grace enough in Christ for all. He expressed his full conviction of the truth of the gospel, the absolute necessity of faith in Christ in order to salvation. Such salvation from such bondage, the gospel of Christ offers to the Gentiles; to a lost world.

Yet it is with much difficulty that any person can be persuaded he needs a work of grace on his heart, like that which was needful for the conversion of the Gentiles. Let us beware of fatal hesitation in our own conduct; and recollect how far the being almost persuaded to be a Christian, is from being altogether such a one as every true believer is.

Don't stop short of truly believing God. So many people come just so far, and then retreat the minute they encounter something they don't quite understand or haven't experienced before. God is a supernatural being, and you simply will not understand everything about Him. But don't let that scare you away. God is not a man like us. His ways are higher than ours, yet we attempt to compare Him to humans that have flaws and selfish agendas.

I am determined not to settle for "almost" in my life. I want to know more, experience more, and live for a greater purpose. With God, I can do that. Without Him, I'm just taking up space and whatever good I do in life is meaningless in the end. I will keep moving forward, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Timothy 1:12