37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Mat. 23:37-38).
Even though you are intended by God to be saved, it remains a personal responsibility to accept His gift of salvation. It’s up to you to choose to accept Him. It remains your personal decision to cooperate with Him and accept the saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was saying, ‘this is not the plan I had for you. This is not my will for you. My will for you is peace with God’. The Lord reminded them that He couldn’t do what He wanted to do because they wouldn’t cooperate with Him. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Going to heaven or hell is a “personal decision” – but Jesus Christ has urged humanity to cooperate with God and receive what’s on offer – the gift of salvation. He declared, strive to enter the narrow way. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Mat. 7:13). Moses also said to the Children of Israel “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;” (Deut. 30:19).
- Thank you for reading our devotional on “Cooperate With God”.