An apparent conversion - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Luke 8:13.

An apparent conversion
Yes, there is such a thing, unfortunately! Signs of being affected by religious emotions do not necessarily signify conversion. Someone may, for example, be very distressed, because he must bear the consequences of some sin. He acknowledges his lost state and longs for redemption. He starts to occupy himself with the Christian faith, but time passes and difficulties arise in his life, and everything stays as it was. A conversion, on the other hand, is a fundamental, permanent change in one's life that cannot escape other people's notice.

It does happen that someone begins praying in dangerous circumstances. People then confess that they have learned to believe in God. Can it then be said that they are converted? No, they have not declared their lives to be bankrupt before God. Their guilt is still present, because the forgiveness of their sins is still lacking. It is granted only on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Someone who merely says, "I have found the way back to God" is not saved, but only whoever comes to the Saviour with a true confession of his sins and turns his back on his former life without God once for all.

Whoever has experienced a genuine conversion will praise God's mercy and grace. He will testify that nothing and no-one can separate him from the love of God.

Today's reading: Ecclesiastes 11:1-10 · Mark 7:1-13