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. 

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)

We can ignore the fact that Jesus died for us 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 our way of living on our own does not work.  We admit that we’ve hurt others and ourselves. We confess that we’ve carried unforgiveness in our hearts towards those who hurt us.  We acknowledge that we’ve lived selfish lives caring only about ourselves and ignoring the suffering of others.  We then repent and tell God that we are sorry for the harm we have caused and our desire is to stop doing things our own way. We ask God to forgive us.  We accept the new life that God offers us through Jesus.  We turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.  We surrender to God and His ways.  We listen, learn and obey His word and whatever He says works.  We commit to getting rid of whatever is harmful to our mind, our emotions, our bodies, and our relationships.  We tell God that we desire, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live in His love and follow His directions. 

When we make this kind of commitment to God, God calls us His friends.  God comes to live in us and fills us with power and love. Today, let’s bring ourselves – our will and our lives -- to the CARE of God.  Let’s embrace the healing that God is offering us.  

©2015 Partners in Hope