When I was about 7 years old, with my mom beside me on my bunk bed, I gave my life to Christ. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me of my sins.
Seems good, right? Everything should be great going forward, right?
Not so much.
Life definitely gives twists and turns that you aren’t prepared for and just because you give your life to Jesus doesn’t give you an opt out of those hard times. And in those hard times, you have choices to make. And let’s face it, sometimes we make the wrong choices. We make mistakes.
Now, does Jesus then turn around and say, “How dare you! You are now stricken from the book of life for the shame you have caused me!” ?
Many may think that He would because that’s what we do. We as humans when things are done wrong against us, we immediately would go to others and say, “How dare you!” We hold on to bitterness, anger, resentment for what’s been done to us. We cross them off our relationship book so to speak. Why wouldn’t Jesus do the same to us?
At least, that’s what I used to think. That every time I did something wrong, Jesus was up there with His book of life going, “Well, Angie screwed up again.” Scratching out the name. “Oh, look. She asked for forgiveness and is coming back to me.” Writes down the name again. “Oh, Angie. Why did you do that?” Name scratched out again. “Glad to have you back, Angie! Try not to mess up anymore. I’m running out of patience to keep crossing you out and then adding you again.”
I literally thought for a long time that the book of life was so riddled with my name being crossed off and re-added that there was no way that I could ever get into heaven. With all the stupid things I’ve done over the years, how could I possibly be able to kneel before the One that died for me?
And there it is.
Jesus died on the cross for us. For each and every person on this Earth so that we could have the ability to kneel before Him. He knows everything we’ve done. Everything we will do. Every stupid, irresponsible, ridiculous thing that we could even think of, He still went to the cross to pay for it so we didn’t have to pay for it ourselves.
Now, we still have the choice to pay for our sins. Notice how I said WE have the choice to pay for our sins. God doesn’t make that choice for us. We make that choice. Because Christ has already paid the price, but there are some that will choose to never accept that payment and would rather pay for their sins on their own.
But when we go to Christ, humbly, and ask for Him to forgive us. Admit that we have sinned and that we accept the payment He made on the cross for all we’ve done and will do. That means we are accepted into His kingdom and nothing, I mean NOTHING can take that away.
There is no power above us or beneath us – no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!
Romans 8:38-39 TPT
See? Once you have given your life to Christ nothing can distance us from His love. Nothing can take us away from His hand. And nothing, not even our stupidity, can cause our name to be blotted out of the book of eternity when we have put our faith and trust in Him and asked Him for his forgiveness.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
Romans 10:10 NKJV
Believe with our heart and confess with our mouth. That’s what we are called to do and even throughout the mistakes and trials, even the times that we feel far from God, when we do the wrong things, God in His everlasting love will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8). When we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, God with His incredible grace and mercy, has insisted that there is nothing you can do that will cause Him to blot out your name from the Book of Life and that is the most encouraging news we could ever get.
angelaschmeling 