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If John Wesley is used as a representative of Arminians, I believe he would heartily accept this verse and point to prevenient grace as the tool God uses to draw men to Christ. I am not a Wesleyan but I assume that is how one would approach this.

 

Let's be clear on something. There is nothing wrong with picking blackberries, especially if you intend to use them to make blackberry cobbler and invite me over to enjoy it with you. I will bring the ice cream.

 

Brother Aaron asked me this question a few days ago:

And this is Bro. Mitchell's post to which he asked me if I agreed with it:

I agree with the premise of what he posted, though I would have probably worded it a little differently than Bro. Rev Mitchell did.


As I have always stated, I can only go with how He dealt with me when He drew and then saved me. Before any of us can approach God, we first have to be drawn. No one, of their own volition, will come to Him. We love ourselves way too much to want to serve Him in our fallen condition. When I was ~15, God showed me that I needed to live for Him, but I didn't want to, because I wanted to do my things first. Over the next 20 years, He never really left me alone. I always felt Him tugging at my heart, wanting me to serve Him. Yet, in my pride, I wanted to serve "self" more than Him. I was coming home one sunday morning listening to the radio, and a FWB preacher who I enjoyed listening to, even though I was a sinner. He preached from Daniel 3, and the three Hebrew men and them being cast into the fiery furnace. I then came to the true realization that I was headed to the same place, if God didn't save me. You talk about scaring someone all the way to the core, well that did. Over the next 12 months, I started going to church, reading the bible, crying and praying for His salvation. However, I was going at it the wrong way. I thought I had to make myself "saveable" before He would save me. I thought if I'd quit doing "this", He'd save me. Nope. Still lost. I then thought if I quit doing "that", He'd save me. Nope. Still lost. I got to the point where I didn't know which way to turn(this is the travail/travel from nature to grace we ORB's and some UB's preach about a lot). I knew I was lost, outside of His grace, love, and mercy, and I knew not how to get "there". Then, at work, on May 24, 2007, at ~01:30 am, in the hospital lab at Paul B. Hall Regional Medical Center, in Paintsville, Ky., God saved an unworthy sinner from his sins. When I relaized that nothing I could/would do would ever save me, I then began trusting in Him, and His finished works of the cross. He then took over, and 2 Cor. 5:17 took place that very instance.

So, it does take God to open one's heart to understand His Word, but at the same time, man must be willing to accept it, too.