For the next 6 days we want to help you to understand how to follow God and become the person He created you to be. The first step is to decide if you believe that Jesus came to rescue you and if you want to follow Him and live your life to please Him.
– A Christian isn’t someone who was born in a Christian country or was born into a Christian family.
– A Christian isn’t someone that believes in God and tries to be good.
– Praying doesn’t make you a Christian and going to church doesn’t make you a Christian.
A Christian is someone that follows Christ – someone that is a follower of Jesus.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. (John 14.6)
The Bible and our own experience tells us that we all do, think and say bad things. These are things that God doesn’t want you to do, and because of these things your relationship with God is broken. There is a barrier between you and God and you can’t go to heaven when you die. God is holy and always does what is right and fair, so He can’t just ignore the bad you do – justice is needed. The punishment you deserve is to go to hell when you die, but God loves us and made us to know Him and be His friend.He doesn’t want us to go to hell and so He has made a way for us to escape!
Jesus, God the Son, came down to this earth to rescue us by taking our place. He was punished on the cross so that we could be forgiven and go free. Three days later He came alive again because He was innocent and had never done anything bad.
Now all you need to do, to know God as your friend and to know His forgiveness, is be sorry for being bad, turn around and walk back towards God. Believe that Jesus loves you so much that He took the punishment you deserved. If you really believe in Jesus you will be so grateful that He died for you that you will want to follow Him. You will want to live your life trying to put Him first in your plans and decisions instead of putting yourself first.
A great first step is to talk to Jesus and tell Him you are sorry for being bad and thank Him that He died for you so you can be forgiven. Use your own words, from your heart, to talk to Him and explain that you want to put Him in charge of your life and live for Him.
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(Romans 10.9)
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2.21)
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Ephesians 2.8-9)
If you believe all of this then you are a child of God, you are a new creation. You are God’s son or daughter and you have a new hope and a new purpose. However, this doesn’t mean life will be perfect or all your problems will disappear. When you go to heaven everything will be good, but until then you need to remember that nothing can separate you from God’s love. He also promises that He will make sure that everything in your life works together for your good and His glory.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God. (Romans 8.28)
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.38-39)
Prayer suggestions:
- Tell God you are sorry for the bad things you have done
- Thank Jesus that He suffered and died so you don’t have to
- Ask God to help you live for Him and put Him first in your plans and decisions