Question: I believe the gospel, but I struggle to embrace it in a personal way. How do I make the step from knowing to trusting?
Answer: Only the Holy Spirit can bring deep conviction of sin and the desire for genuine repentance. We have to first recognize the drawing power of the Holy Spirit. And then it comes down to a matter of saying, “This is not just what I believe to be true – it is what I need in my life. I choose to accept the offer of salvation and yield myself to the Lord Jesus.”
Question: At what point did you personally go from seeing what God has done for others to accepting that He also did them personally for you?
Answer: I was brought up in a Christian home where I not only heard the words that my parents taught but observed the life that they exhibited. I fully recognized that this was what I needed. But perhaps even more telling than that, during the Second World War, we had an enormous number of young men from all over the [then] British Empire who came to train at the nearby Royal Air Force Station—and many young believers among them. I saw in their lives as they were going off to war, knowing that many of them would be killed in matter of weeks, they did so with equanimity and joy. They were genuine believers, and I wanted that myself.