The Gift

Before I received Christ I went to church every Sunday with my family. I had been taught about Gods love from the time I was a baby, I just never really fully understood it, nor had I asked Jesus to save me from my sin. I think I thought that I would go to heaven because I was a pretty good person. I didn’t party like many of my friends, and I didn’t swear. I tried to be kind to people. I worked hard in school and was a good student. I just never really thought about how perfect a person would have to be to get into heaven by their own good works. I wasn’t like many of the sinful people I had read about in the Bible - like the demon possessed man, or the adulterous woman, or the tax collector who was cheating people. But I knew I had never really asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life. I had not accepted the free gift of eternal life.

I was like a child at a birthday party who never opened all the presents that friends had brought. I had never personally accepted Gods free gift of salvation. I knew about it, but I had left it sitting there unopened - thus it wasn’t really mine. It was a gift just waiting to be opened. As soon as I opened that gift and asked Jesus to be my savior I had a peace that I had not had before. I now knew that I now had the gift of eternal life.

I now knew that when I died I would go to heaven because Jesus had already paid for my sins, and I didn’t have to be perfect.

I am not afraid of death because Jesus conquered sin and death for me.

I do not fear death because I know God is with me and he loves me like a parent loves their child. He has promised never to leave me or forsake me. The miracle performing God of the Bible loves me.

Before Jesus died on the cross he told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them so that they could be with him forever. God has prepared a place for me in heaven so that I will be with him for eternity!