When you put your faith in what Jesus did for you on the cross by shedding His blood and dying on the cross for your sins and their penalties and in His resurrection to conquer death so He can give you eternal life, you must also confess your sins to God in humility and repent of them. Jesus said that without repentance, there is no salvation. Doing these things gives you forgiveness of past, present and future sins in your life and an eternity in Heaven with Jesus/God. It also gives you a better life here on earth. God has a wonderful plan for your life.
Does that intimidate you? Does the humility part and repentance scare you? Do you not want to live out God’s plan for your life? Do you have your own plan for your life that you look forward to living out?
Let me ask you this question. Do you struggle with praising God because you, yourself, want to be praised verbally and by applause and you only want to focus on you? Do you want to be your own god?
There’s a beautiful song called “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” Read the words below.
I’D RATHER HAVE JESUS
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold
I’d rather be His than have riches untold
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
(Chorus)
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today
I’d rather have Jesus than worldly applause
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame
Yes, I’d rather be true to His holy name
(Repeat Chorus)
Songwriters: Rhea Miller / George Beverly Shea
Mankind has a problem with wanting their own way and all the world’s riches and other men’s applause. They want to be god in their own lives. No one is going to tell them what to do. But without Jesus, they have NO way of getting to Heaven, but instead will go straight to hell when they die a physical death. Their decision to reject Jesus is foolishness and eternal.
The Bible says that the only sin that cannot be forgiven by Jesus’ salvation is the rejection of His salvation. That’s a pretty serious sin, as well as, foolish!
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD AT ALL?
There’s one other thing that people have trouble with – believing in God at all.
God holds everyone accountable for His existence according to Romans 1:18-21, 25. See below.
“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—Who is forever praised. Amen.”
I encourage you to follow Jesus’ way of Salvation because it is the ONLY way. One other thing — Good works do NOT help you get saved. Good works do not count for anything in God’s eyes unless you put your faith in Jesus first. God will then be pleased with your good works.
Like I said before, Jesus will also have a plan for your life. He wants you to serve Him with your life. He will make it known to you how. Not everyone serves God the same way, but we are all supposed to tell others about Jesus and salvation. Every true Christian is supposed to do that!
I hope and pray you will take some time to think about all of this and make the right decision for Jesus versus the foolish decision.
If you would like to send me a message/comment, you can do that on my blog. It’s all private. Click on “comment” in the upper right corner and leave me your thoughts. If you have questions about salvation or about anything related to this devotional message, please leave me your questions. I will get back to you. Thank you.
Sharon
sharborr.blog 