How Do I Respond to God?
Respond by Making Choices
By Larry Fayer
When people hear the message of salvation, THEY ALWAYS RESPOND BUT THEY MAY RESPOND IN DIFFERENT WAYS. In the New Testament these responses can be broken down into one of three categories.
One is rejection and anger. Paul and the group of evangelists who were with him were run them out of town on a regular basis (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 for some of the results of his efforts or you can read about them many places in the Book of Acts: e.g., 13:45 and 50; 14:5, 19; 16:22-24 and many more). Rejection is the result of disbelief and anger is a natural response to hearing what you don’t want to hear. That result was common.
A second response is hearing and receiving. A couple examples of hearing and receiving the gospel are:
# "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls" Acts 2:41(KJV).
# "One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay'” (Acts 16:14-15).
A third is, “I’ll think about it” and put it off. Examples include:
# Felix the governor: “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you” (Acts 24:25).
# King Agrippa, “believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." Then Agrippa said unto Paul, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian'” (Acts 26:27-28 KJV).
It is interesting that the different hearers in Athens, Greece each had one of these three responses to Paul’s preaching: "Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, 'We will hear you again about this.' So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them" (Acts 17:32-34).
My guess is those of you who have read this series of articles on “How Do We Respond to God?” will fall into one of these three categories. You must decide, “What will my response be?” You get to answer that question any way you want.