I really have a desire to serve the Lord, why don't I budge?

I remember when I was a teenager - how diligently I tried to serve God. I tried to dress modest, not curse, pray, read the Bible, pay my tithes, keep my hair short, thank God for everything I ate and drank, go to church whenever possible, even if I was very ill. I remember that clearly. Oh, yeah - I walked around holding my Bible a lot. That was just a habit though, but I remember my sister Cynthia saying that the other church kids looked up to me because of that. I guess I looked holy. Hmmm....but was I?

Truthfully, even though I looked holy on the outside, I was just like the pharisees. Jesus compared them to "whitewashed tombs" in Matthew 23:27.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."

23 year later, I realize what a wretched sinner I really am. Through studying the Bible I've learned that I will never be able to enter heaven without the blood of Christ that was shed for me.  In other words, no matter what good deeds I may do and no matter how good and holy I seem to be on the outside, I will never be good enough to make it into heaven. We have to be perfect to make it on our own. I (as well as you, more likely than not) have lied, blasphemed, stolen, lusted, dishonored my parents, hated, etc. If God judged me by His standards (the Ten Commandments) I'd be guilty. God is a good and just God and he will judge us:

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment"  (Hebrews 9:27)

Where do guilty people go when they die? Hell. Yep, I said it. Where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:48) Let me say it again. Hell. Jesus took all the sins of the world and put them on himself and was sacrificed, conquering sin. We need to cry out to God, repent and put our faith in Him. He will receive us and save us. (By the way, we don't "accept Him", He accepts us!) We're not saved by our own works, like good deeds, or being baptized (though we are commanded to do good deeds and be baptized). So we are not saved by our own "good" because we are not good. We are saved by Jesus' works....and He must get ALL the credit!

Ephesians 2: 8,9 says:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."

So, why won't you budge? Because you still may need to realize that you are a sinner (like me) and God is the only one who is righteous. You need to realize that we can't do it on our own. Realize that God has already paid the price for our sins, then TRUST in Him. Put your faith in Him. We do this the same way we put our faith in a parachute.

Imagine this: 

You are on a plane. There is a parachute under your seat. The plane's engines go out all of a sudden and it's going down. What do you do? Do you just believe in the parachute, thinking that your saved? Nope. You put it on. You trust it and have faith that your life will be saved by putting it on. If don't put it on, you're doomed. (Thank you, Ray Comfort, for the analogy.)

We need to stop trying to work our way to heaven. We are to trust in God -- that He'll save us. And when we are truly saved, we are given the gift of His Holy Spirit, which guides us. When we are saved we will be given a new heart with a strong desire to serve Him, to obey Him, to live for Him, and to worship Him with our lives. 

Rom. 12: 1.2 says:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I wasn't truly saved until 5 years ago. When were you saved? Examine yourself. If you are saved, cool! If you are not, get on your knees and let God save you. Remember that we are not going to change over night. It is a process that we go through (sanctification) and it takes time. We repent and the Holy Spirit works in us and guides us, molding us into a model of Jesus. We will sin, yes, but if we do, we will fall into sin as opposed to diving into it like before. We repent daily. If we fail, we get up, dust ourselves off and keep on going. Remember, we don't jump into sin anymore when we're saved. We don't plan it, check to see if anyone's looking, indulge and enjoy it. Nope.

Have you put on the parachute, or just believed in it? Remember that the demons believe in Jesus and tremble at his name. Are they going to heaven?


Made ya think! 


(I hope.)