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God knows what your life
is like today. He knows your pain, your discouragement, your
emptiness. He even knows that you think you do not need Him. You may
never be closer to this "Most Important Relationship" than you are
right now. A deep relationship with God may be the answer to the
urgent crisis you face. Your realization of your need for God will
open a door of forgiveness to you welcoming you into a personal
relationship with God! Want to know why you need Him even though you
do not think you do?
As you continue down this page, you will begin to see how personally
God is reaching out to you. He wants you to discover His love, and
His solutions to your life struggles.
There are Four Life
Principles that will help you begin this special relationship
with God!
Life Principle One:
God loves you and created
you to know Him personally.
The Bible tells us in the Gospel (that means the Good News!) that;
“God so loves the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”
(John 3:16).
The Bible also tells us that we can know God, even though He is
supreme He can be known and wants to be known by each one of us.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
Do you know God personally?
What is keeping you from knowing God personally?
Life
Principle Two: People are sinful and separated from God, so we
cannot know Him personally
or experience His love.
You may feel like you are
a pretty cool person (and I wouldn't doubt that!), but as cool as
you and I are we have still done things that are displeasing to God
(if you are like me, you won't have to think too hard to know the
truth of that statement). The Bible reminds us that,
“All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
Let's back this up just a second; God created people to enjoy
fellowship with Him, but our sin (those bad things we do) broke the
fellowship we had with God. This broken fellowship separates us from
God and prevents us from enjoying what He intended for us to enjoy.
That is why our lives so often feel disjointed, frustrating, and
unfulfilling; because we are not able to fill our lives with what
they are intended to be filled with - God's love!
The bad news is that our sin (it's those bad things again) is like a
crime against God, and He must punish the crime; the Bible reveals
that, "the wages of sin is death” [spiritual separation from God]
(Romans 6:23). Our sin separates us from God like a huge chasm or
gulf. No matter what you attempt to do (trying to live right, going
to church, giving money to the poor, etc.) to bridge the gulf, we
can never get across, our sin is too much.
That's depressing! How can we
bridge this huge chasm?
Life
Principle Three: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision to
bridge the gulf of man’s sin.
This is where the truth about God's love gets exciting! God loves
you so very much, even though you have sinned; He loves you so much
that He took the penalty for your sin. He died in your place (and
mine too!). The Bible says, “God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8).
So God came into our world in human flesh, He lived and died as a
man, He did so as Jesus. Jesus! God in the flesh died so you would
not have to die. “Christ died for our sins . . . He was
buried . . . He was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures . He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that to
more than five hundred. . . .“ (1 Corinthians 15:3-6). What an
amazing demonstration of His love!
This sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection of Jesus, was
the only way God allowed sin to be paid for; as Jesus states, ‘I am
the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father,
but through Me’ (John 14:6). So that huge chasm between us and God,
the gulf created by our own sin; was bridged by Jesus dying on a
cross in our place.
Is it sufficient to know this
to begin your Most Important Relationship?
Life
Principle Four: Each person must individually receive Jesus as
Savior before we can develop this Most Important relationship with
God.
The first step to this dynamic relationship with God starts when you
receive Jesus as your Savior. “As many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe
in His name” (John 1:12). We receive Jesus by faith, believing what
He has already said, “By grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result
of works that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
The second step is to personally receive Him. Ask Him to be your
Savior. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart and life, He is
waiting for you to invite Him in; Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at
the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).
Here is a simple explanation of
how you can ask Jesus into your heart and life:
You Can Receive Christ Right
Now by Faith Through Prayer (talking with God). God knows your
heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the
attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I want to know
You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open
the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You
for forgiving me of my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control
of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to
be, and help me with these problems I face.”
Does this prayer express the
desire of your heart? If it does, pray this prayer right now, and
Christ will come into your life, as He promised. |
