If i asked you to describe yourself, what will you say? Will you refer to yourself with your title in your work place or in your family. These are parts of your identity, yet you are more than what you do or where you live.
You are a human being who is loved by God. You are smart, beautiful, cherished , and not the only one.
Pause for a moment to consider that – God loves you, and not as a result of what you do. He loves you for your identity and is calling to you in spite of the errors you have made in life. Isn't that simply the sort of love you've always dreamed about?
You probably won't consider yourself special, however you are. You are a hand-made unique. God made you intentionally, no mishaps of destiny or possibility. The Bible says that when God made man and woman;
"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.."
Genesis 1:31
God made you and He is keen on the points of interest of your life. The Bible discloses to us that Gods knows every one of us more than we know ourselves - he even knows what number of hairs are on your head!
Matthew 10:30
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
It's fantastic to consider the same God who made the stars and turns the shades of the leaves in seasons, made you. You are His masterpiece and He loves you. God made you to have an association with Him, but some of the time it feels like you and God aren't on talking terms?
You know what it's like when you have disagreement with a companion and there's separation between you? It's like that with God and us. God could have made us as robots that simply did whatever we were told, however he didn't. He gave us choice, the capacity to pick. This is a result of his love for us. Love without decision isn't love, it's compulsion. You can't have any genuine relationship without decision.
Along these lines, as humans we get the chance to pick, and in the beginning we went our own way. Sin entered the world and with it came a division from God, a separation in our association with him. I know you might say; In any case, I'm a good individual" Being a good individual isn't sufficient.
The word sin in the Greek originates from a word that implies essentially "missing the mark". We can try hard to be good individuals, however to have the capacity to be in association with God we'd should be perfect in our thoughts, attitude and activities. Which is impossible. The Bible reveals to us that the discipline for sin is death – endless separation from God, we are all sinners.
Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
If God loves us, for what reason would we perish? That is a good question. God can't simply disregard our sin. God is just – he is worried about good and bad. The cost of our sin is death – somebody needed to pay that price. God couldn't take away the punishment. If he did that it would be like stating that sin isn't an issue. It would mean pretending that everything is alright between us rather than really repairing the relationship.
Since God loves us, he doesn't want us to perish. So He sent His child Jesus to die in our place. Jesus, Himself divine; God in human shape; God's only child, carried on with a perfect life without sin and was killed on a cross. A demise He didn't merit so we could carry on with a life we couldn't earn. God made an inconceivable sacrifice for us.
It says in the Bible that "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Rom 5:8
God loves us so much that he didn't sit and wait for us to come to him with our need, he dealt with it before we even acknowledged we needed him.
It doesn't end there however. Jesus died, and after three days He became alive once again. Jesus is the Son of God, not only a good man, a teacher and a prophet. Jesus demonstrated his identity by raising up from the dead. Through Him we can know God since Jesus paid for the sin that isolated us from God.
THE FIRST STEP
Knowing about Jesus isn't sufficient. Every one of us needs to accept what Jesus improved the situation us. When you are sick knowing about the solution would not fix you. You'd need to take it for it to influence your condition. It's a similar thing with God's love and Jesus' sacrifice, except if we possess it, it can't save us.
Accepting what Jesus did is agreeing with God that you are a sinner. It is not a simple thing to state. You need God in your life and that there is nothing you can do in your own quality to compensate for your sin. That is the initial step.
THE SECOND STEP
The Bible reveals to us that if we accept that Jesus improved the situation for us, our sins are pardoned.
Psalm 103:12 lets us know
"as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
"Transgressions" is simply another more word for "sins".
WHAT NEXT?
Accepting Christ does not change you into a flawless individual. Yet, it takes you from being a condemned individual and sets you free. You and I will continue sinning one way or another, thought, words or deeds, its inevitable, but since our association with God has been reestablished we can go to him and request absolution and strength to make better decisions. We can be guaranteed that when we do sin and sincerely look for pardoning we will be forgiven.
With the hindrance of sin gone, we can have the association with God that He wants for us. This relationship guarantees quality for now and everlasting life, being with Him always, even after death. You should simply accept this gift in faith and by will.
HOW DO I ACCEPT JESUS?
The last part is praying to God, requesting that he comes into your life and make you the individual He needs you to be. Prayer is simply conversing with God. There is no set in stone approach to do it. God isn't worried about the words that you pick, he thinks about the condition of your heart. He hears you. You can ask a petition something like this:
Jesus, I need to know you by and by. I realize that I am a sinner and that nothing I could do can compensate for that. Thank you for dying in my place and paying the cost for my sin. I realize that my sin doesn't separate me from God any longer. Thank you for pardoning me. I realize that you love me and that I will go through forever with you. I need you to be my Savior. Come into my life and take control, make me the individual you need me to be. Amen!!
Thanks for reading!!