My son, give me your heart.
Proverbs 23:26.
In the southern states of the U.S.A a missionary preached to a congregation in the forest. He spoke of the Good Shepherd who came into the world to seek and save the lost. He also told how the Saviour prayed earnestly in the garden of Gethsemane, when He had His crucifixion in view. And he described how He was captured and subjected to coarse treatment, then forsaken by God, when He suffered for us as the atoning sacrifice and died.
Then a well built Indian came up to the missionary with tears in his eyes and asked, “Did Jesus die for me, too, poor Indian that I am? I can’t give Jesus any land, but I’ll give Him my dog and my gun.”
In friendly words the missionary replied that Jesus expected something quite different from him.
“Well, I’ll give him my dog, my gun, and my woollen blanket. I’m only a poor Indian who can’t give Him any more. I’m giving Jesus all I have.”
The preacher repeated what he had just said. The poor man from the forest bowed his head sadly, apparently thinking. Suddenly he looked up at the missionary more confidently and said, “Here is the Indian himself. Will Jesus have him?” What a moving moment it was when that Indian came to Jesus and surrendered himself and his whole life to Him!
“The life which I now live …, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).