As we’ve been going through the Gospel of Luke, we’ve seen that Jesus chose to come down from heaven to live among us humans on earth as both fully God (Immanuel – God with Us!) and fully human. God shows us how to have Faith, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love in our lives through Jesus. Through Luke’s historical writing we witnessed Jesus’ life: His sacrifices, miracles, humility, and love. As Jesus said…
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NTL
HE GAVE
Jesus is truly the Gift that keeps on giving! The wonderful thing is that everyone who believes in HIM will have eternal life! And “everyone” means EVERYONE! However, they must BELIEVE. There is nothing we can do by ourselves but believe this.
What Does Jesus Want in Return?
He wants you. He wants YOU to LOVE HIM! He wants you to FULLY SURRENDER your life to Him. He told us that the greatest commandment is …
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37 NLT
All means ALL! That means there is no room for Mary, money, pride, vanity, lust, selfishness, greed and idolatry.
Thoughts from the free YouVersion Bible App
God wants our hearts and entire devotion. And then guess what will happen? We will do things like attend church and study the Bible because we want to know Him more. We will consider what we watch and say because we want to be more like Him. We will be kind and generous because we want to do what He’s called us to do. Our spiritual activities should not come first, nor should they be obligatory. They follow our heart’s devotion.
When we say yes to Jesus and receive His salvation, we die to self. But, the next day we will have to die again. And the next day and the next. The battle with our selfish desires occurs from the moment we wake up until the moment we drift off to sleep. Dying to self is an everyday event. The more we follow Christ, the more we should be dying to self. Why? Because we have sought after God and learned this: His higher, better ways supersede our mediocre, average ways.
So, what happens when we mess up? Is He mad at us? Are we going to get punished? Will we miss out on Heaven? Is there a spiritual button that is pressed that sends us back to the beginning for a do over?
Hardly.
YouVersion
Jesus died on the cross taking ALL our sins away: past, present and future. If we mess up — and we will because we’re human — all we have to do is to admit it to Him and He will forgive us. Then you have to promise to not do it again. The Holy Spirit will help you.
Jesus was born so we could be Born Again!
When we surrender our lives to Him, we turn away from our old sinful life and start anew with Him. We must constantly strive to be like Him — Christlike. We will never be “perfect” while we are here on earth, but we can live righteously. That’s what following Jesus means.
Jesus wants to give you the gift of eternal life. All you have to do is accept it.
Isn’t it time that you invited Jesus into your heart?
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
