QUESTION #22
Have we failed to confess Christ openly? Are we ashamed of Jesus? Do we keep our mouths closed when we are surrounded by worldly circumstances? Are we witnessing daily?
It’s easy to assume that our lives are right with God based on things we know. It’s especially easy if the only exposure we’ve had to Christianity is from the culture. Some denominations of Christianity vary on this point, but the truth we find in the Bible is that Jesus came to this Earth to give His life away so that we might live forever with Him. There is a life beyond this earthly one here. God’s Word teaches that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell. Jesus came so “that none should perish, but that all might have eternal life.” He wants us to choose Him, to make confession with our mouths that He is Lord. This isn’t just one time in our lives, but an ongoing, everyday decision.
Many of us reading this entry have prayed the “prayer of salvation”. And maybe it was a very real genuine prayer. I hope that it was. Yet, is our witness to confess Him as strong today as it was before? Are we ashamed of Him and His word? Are continuing to align our lives with His Lordship?
Some of us may have never asked Jesus into your lives as Lord. Stephen attended high-school with a girl who had a t-shirt that read “If He (Jesus) isn’t Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all.” He used to hate seeing that shirt because it convicted him of his sin and failure to respond to Christ’s lordship in every area. It’s really true though. Either we are making Jesus our Lord in every area of our life, or our lives still belongs to us. This type of surrender can feel overwhelming, but not when compared to the beauty of overwhelming grace. It’s the difference between holding onto our lives and making the choice to give them away to Christ. One instills fear while the other produces freedom.
APPLICATION:
- If you have never prayed to ask Jesus to cleanse you of your sins and make your life right before Him, what better time to do so than in celebration of His birth! Pray this prayer out loud and add to it however you feel to speak out. “Jesus, I love you. I receive Your love today. I know that You came and died for me. Please cleanse me of my sins, my failures, my shortcomings. Heal my heart of the pain this life has caused. Make me like you. I receive Your grace. I receive Your forgiveness. I receive Your Holy Spirit into my heart and life. I acknowledge You as Lord of my life. Have Your way in me. Have Your way in my family.”
**If you prayed that prayer, congratulations! I pray your life is filled with the love of Christ. I encourage you to get into a church where they preach the Bible and are excited about Jesus. We know of many faithful pastors and churches in and through the greater Tulsa area depending on where you live if you need a suggestion.
- If you are a believer, consider today’s question and evaluate where you see yourself in your walk with Him. Keep making surrenders in your heart to abide and keep Him Lord of all.
SCRIPTURES:
John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Romans 8:8-9 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.