Will you listen to my personal love story?
I grew up in a wonderful, Christian home. I always remember hearing Bible stories taught at our home and church. God was a name mentioned often in our house. I knew all about sinners and Christ dying on the cross and the whole story.
I did not know then what a rare gift I had been given by having Christian parents who were so dedicated to teaching their children about their faith. To me it was common, and seemed normal.
But when I was about 10 years old I started to take all I knew about God and apply it to myself. All the lessons became personal and the word sinner suddenly fit my status.
All of the sudden the stories I had heard about God sending His only Son to the earth became bigger to me than they had. I remember how much confusion I went through and how I hoped no one around me knew that I was a sinner. Being the shy person that I was growing up, I was terrified of getting saved because then I knew that I would want to get baptized and I was so scared of standing up in front of everyone at our church to do that.
But then something happened. I knew that I would never have true peace or rest until I had Jesus in my heart. I knew that no one else could fill that spot. When I was 11 I gave my life to Jesus and He welcomed me with open arms.
The older I get the more I think I grow to understand what a very hard thing it was for God to send His son here. I picture how much I love my two precious children. Then I try and picture loving anyone on this earth enough to send one of my children to live with people who would hate them, mock them and kill them. Would you ever do that to your child? Has anyone ever loved you enough to give up their only child so that you would be able to live forever?!And yet, Christ did that for me and you.
My pastor once explained it like this: coming to Jesus is not easy. It is very very hard. Coming to Jesus is the hardest thing that has ever been done. God had to send His son to earth to be born in a barn, Jesus was despised for no reason, betrayed by His friends, died on the cross and then buried and finally rose again up into heaven. That is not easy. But Christ did all of that for us. He took everything that is hard about salvation and did it. All He left us with is the easy part. Just believe on him and come to Jesus.
I think it must break God's heart to see people on earth reject His perfect Son. I know if I had given up my only child to save a world of lost sinners, then I would certainly be hurt if they did not accept my gift. My most valuable possession, my son.
This Sunday night I was teaching my 4 and 5 year old class at church a lesson on Jesus praying in the garden just before Judas betrayed Jesus and briefly told them about Him dying on the cross. During the lesson 2 of the children grew particularly quiet. One of them was Laney. She had tears well up in her eyes and she could not figure out why Judas would turn his back on His friend, Jesus. She was so sad over hearing that some people hated Jesus that it made her cry. Another little boy, JF, got very still, pulled his legs up to his chest and his little face grew very somber as he stared down at the ground shaking his head. It made me stop and think about what a overwhelming story the cross is. And how often does it become a repeat story for me? How often do I forget how huge it is?
So many times we get caught up into trying to figure it all out. Getting all the answers to all our questions seems to be more important. And having questions and searching for truth is good. But, at some point God wants you to come to him as a child. Like I did when I was 11. I did not have all the answers, far from it. But God will accept you even without your understanding it all. He wants us to have Faith in Him. And if we have Faith in Him we know that He has the answers and only through Him will we ever have true peace.
If you have not had a personal Love story of your own, I would tell you that you can. All you need is to believe on Him. All you need to do is the easy part because He saw to it that the hard part was taken care of for us.
Wouldn't Valentine's Day be a wonderful day for your Love story with Christ to begin?!
Romans 5:8 ~ But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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