What Does Jesus' Death Have To Do With Me? (2)

What Does Jesus’ Death Have To Do With Me? (2)

What does Jesus death have to do with me?  Well, maybe nothing and maybe everything -- the choice is ours.  Jesus makes Himself available to us as the solution to the unmanageable problem of our own sin and brokenness.  We can ignore that wonderful offer and perish with our problems or we can choose to accept the gift of a life-changing relationship with the Living God.  How do we do that?

We make a choice.  We admit to God that we’ve been hurting ourselves and others; we admit that we carry unforgiveness in our hearts towards those who hurt us, but are willing to give it over to Him; we admit that our desire is to stop doing things our way; we admit that we are willing to accept the way of life that God has for us.  We tell Him of our desire to listen, learn and obey whatever He says works.  We commit to God to get rid of whatever is harmful to our mind, our emotions, our bodies, and our relationships.  We tell God that we now wish to live in His love and follow his directions NO MATTER WHAT OR HOW WE ARE FEELING. 

We bring ourselves – our will and our lives to the CARE of God.  We invite God’s comfort into the painful places in our broken hearts and ask Him to remove every angry thought from us.  We acknowledge that God cared for us when any injustice was done to us and He cares for us now.   He wraps us in His love which is much bigger and many times more powerful than the worst injustice done to us.  We embrace the healing that God is offering us.  We remember how we’ve been forgiven many wrongs and choose to be agents of God’s forgiveness to any person who has harmed us.  We invite God to work in our lives to renew our minds and hearts.  We intentionally shift our focus to God’s goodness and allow Him to renew our minds to think thoughts according to His will.  

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.  When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.   For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:6,10-11 NLT)

Lord Jesus, what an amazing gift!  You gave up your life so I could have life that lasts forever.  I choose to lay down my independent ways.  I turn to You.  Forgive me for all my wrongdoing and wash me clean.  I submit to you and ask that you now create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I desire to have a loving relationship with You.  I commit to read your word so that I may grow in grace and the knowledge of You. I desire to have life and to have it more abundantly. I am forever grateful that you died in my place so that I might live. Amen

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