One day a nurse stopped by my office. She said, “I’m sick and tired of my life. I know I need God, and I’d like to come to Him. Will you please help me?”

Well, that’s just the kind of opportunity any preacher is excited about. So I said, “Of course! All you have to do is come to Him in prayer and ask Him to forgive your sin and take control of your life. We can do that right now.”

“No,” she said, “Wait a minute. I have plans for this weekend.” She went on to tell me about her plans. She was going out of town with someone else’s husband. She wanted to come to Christ, but she didn’t want to change her plans for the weekend. And it was Thursday afternoon.

I said, “You can come to Christ just as you are. You don’t have to change your plans for the weekend in order to come to Christ. You come to Christ just as your are, and He will deal with your plans.”

She said, “You don’t really believe that!”

Now let me ask you. Who was right? Did she have to change her plans for the weekend before she could come to Christ? Or would He accept her with her plans for the weekend? Which do you believe?

Jeremiah 3:13 says,

“Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.”

Well, this young nurse had done that much. She admitted that her plans for the weekend were wrong. But she still wasn’t willing to give them up.

How is repentance accomplished? Do we come to Christ in order to repent, or do we repent in order to come to Christ? In the area of repentance, we have often found ourselves in the shoes of the man whose horn on his car wouldn’t work. So he went to the garage for repairs, and on the door of the garage was a sign which read, “Honk for service.”

The chapter on repentance in Steps to Christ explains the way out of this apparent dilemma. It says,

“Just here is a point on which many err, and hence they fail of receiving the help that Christ desires to give them. They think they cannot come to Christ unless they first repent, and that repentance prepares for the forgiveness of their sins. It is true that repentance does precede the forgiveness of sins; for it is only the broken and contrite heart that will feel the need of a Saviour. But must the sinner wait till he has repented before he can come to Jesus? Is repentance to be made an obstacle between the sinner and the Saviour?” - Page 26.

The answer to that question comes on the same page, “We can no more repent without the Spirit of Christ to awaken the conscience than we can be pardoned without Christ.” Repentance isn’t something we do; it’s a gift. In order to receive a gift, we must first come into the presence of the Giver.

So if you are a young nurse on a Thursday afternoon, longing for something better in your life, but unable to change your plans for the weekend, you can come to Christ just as you are. You will never be able to change your life of sin apart from Him. But when you come to Him, He will give you repentance and forgiveness and grace to overcome, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight.

Your part is to continue to come to Him, to continue to accept the gifts He has to offer.