Day 317: Knowing God For Ourselves

John 14:6

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

How many times have we used someone else’s faith as a crutch so that we would not have to submit our lives fully to God? What I’m asking is have we ever felt like our faith or our salvation was dependent on someone else? We have pastors, parents, and leaders who will lead us to Christ, but the only way to eternity it through Christ. We must have a personal relationship with God for ourselves. People can lead us to the water but they cannot make us drink. We can be led to Christ all our lives but if we do not make the decision to follow Him ourselves we will remain wight where we are.

The only way to God is through Jesus, the only way to eternity is through Jesus. No one else can

get us there. No one else can make the decision for us.  Many of us grew up in church or going to church, and many of us did not. For those of us who grew up in church or around church or having a common knowledge of the Christian faith, we had to at one point come to the conclusion that knowing about God and knowing God are two completely different things. We must gain a relationship with God for ourselves and that’s something no one else can for us. Our parents can drag us to church all of our lives but we have to make that decision ourselves. We have to come to know God for who He is, we must profess our own faith. We must repent for our own sins. Our parents, our mentors, our pastors, no one can do that for us.

How many times have we depended on the faith of others to get us by? We’ve depended on the prayers of others, and thought just because we go to church that we are okay. We are good because we grew up in the church and we know about God, We know about the bible. We got baptised when we were younger, we take communion and our parents dedicated us. We go to church every sunday, and we listen to a good sermon that will hold us over until next sunday so, we’re good right? No we are not we must come to know God for ourselves, our parents introduce us to our faith, but we make the decision to follow Christ. We make the decision to choose Christ every day of our lives. We make the decision to spend time with God in His word, growing in our faith, learning and knowing more about Him. These are our decisions, if God doesn’t make that decision for us, why do we put it on others to do it for us. Many of us are thriving because someone is praying for us, someone is going to God on our behalf, many say it’s the prayers of our grandmothers, but I know that it’s Jesus standing at the right hand of God interceding for us day in and day out.

What I’m getting at here is, no one can have a relationship with God for us. No one can submit our lives to Christ for us. No one can get on our knees and confess our sins to God and repent. No one can accept Christ into our lives but us. My mom would always tell me, “I can’t stand before God on the day of judgement for you, you stand before Him alone.” That struck me so hard because when I’m standing before God He’s not going to ask about how many times I went to church with my mom or how I had a relationship with Him through someone else. No He wants us all to have a personal relationship with Him. He is concerned with our hearts and how we served Him. We must do it ourselves. We have the power to walk away from a life of sin and dwell with Christ for all of our days.

All this to say, the only way to God is through Christ, not our parents, mentors, pastors, etc. If we really want to know what it is to truly live, we must get to know God for ourselves. We must have a personal relationship with God.

Response/Prayer Time

1. Are you depending on someone else to have a relationship with God for you?
2. Do you think that going to church and listening to a sermon is enough to have a relationship with God?
3. Respond in whatever way you feel led. Take the time to think about what we discussed today and talk to God about.

If you’ve never made the decision to follow Christ and you want to, or if you want to rededicate your life to Him, now is the time to do. Now is the time to make that decision. If you want to be brought into this magnificent promise of eternity, now is the time to make that decision. If that’s you if you want to make that decision, pray this prayer with me,

“Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sins and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. I pray that you shine your  light on me and bring me out of the darkness and into your light. I love you Lord. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.”

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! If you made the decision to follow Christ today, congratulations! Do not hesitate to reach and get plugged into  a church. Make sure you come back tomorrow for day 318!