A Second Chance at Life

Adele Joseph writes:

I was born and raised in church. I was extremely sheltered to say the least. I grew up reciting bible verses, knowing all the bible stories, I was even taught how to pray from the second I was able to form sentences. I was 5 years old spitting Psalms 23. I thought I knew everything there was to know to be a successful Christian. Going to church, reading the Bible and routine prayer. I did this routine every day, a daily chore if you will. I’m set for heaven duh. My life should be nice and easy since I’m follow his laws right? At least I thought. 

Fast forward to middle school. I became exposed to a lot of secular things and without much depth in my relationship with God I fell into sin. I followed the crowd so I could fit in. Smoking,  fighting, sneaking out, lust etc. I was having the time of my life. This is so much fun. The friends I grew up with at church were the ones I was having the most “fun” with.  I continued this way of living all through high school. The prayer stopped, the Bible study stopped. Everything that had to do with God made my skin itch. But no matter how much fun I thought I was having , when the fun ended I always came back home, sat in my room and just felt empty. I thought to myself some thing is missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

I then went to college and fell even deeper into my secular ways of living. I had more freedom, I didn’t have anyone holding me accountable spiritually. I had my very first drink and started clubbing. As the clubbing and drinking habits began so did the deep void in my heart. After months of feeling convicted, I decided to give God a try again. I will never forget the day I started a devotional by Pastor Joseph Prince on the Bible App. I don’t remember how or who told me about it but I am grateful for it. It changed my life and my view of Christ forever. 

This devotional taught me about a wonderful thing called Grace and the meaning of the cross. The Cross? I thought the cross was just a place Christ died. I never knew the true significance of it. I never knew the Cross was the reason I was able to have a second chance at life. I never resonated with the fact that it was because of Christ’s sacrifice I am made new and whole. I have Gods grace because Jesus thought I was good enough to die for. For by his stripes I am healed. My works will never be enough but because of the perfect sacrifice I will always be more than sufficient. Ephesians 2:8 says that “ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, “ It is written and we KNOW his word is true and will remain true forever. God found me (and you!) valuable enough to lay down and die so that I may live for Him. I always thought of God as some extremely mean, strict judgmental God that looks at me in disgust because I could not stop sinning. I didn’t know that although he hates sin he loves me more and was willing to work with me in overcoming it. Im changed forever. While I do still struggle with sin I carry that love for God in my heart and have faith in the cross and his perfect sacrifice. I have a new found self esteem and self worth. I do not subject myself to certain things anymore because I AM Gods child. I am a direct reflection of him. So to all the beautiful readers reading this, please surrender your life TODAY. RIGHT NOW. Tomorrow is my guaranteed. Let God be the head of your life. Once you do that everything else will fall into place. You’ll have absolutely nothing to worry about because God created you for a purpose and as long as you are aligned with him everything will happen at the perfect time. Nobody knows you more then your maker.  It won’t be easy to follow him and life will certainly not be all peaches and keen. Jesus himself told his disciples this in the book of Matthew. You may lose friends, even family amongst other things when you choose God over the world but whatever you lose in this world you will gain it back times hundred (Mark 10:30) What is the purpose of gaining everything in this world if you lose your soul (Matt 16:26) . This world amounts to nothing but temporary self gratification and destruction. There’s nothing worth losing your salvation. N O T H I N G. Repent. Pick Jesus. It’ll be the best thing you ever did!