If We Have Given Our Heart to Jesus . . .
- Where would you & I be if Jesus had never come to earth?
- If you had never believed, where would you be headed at the moment you died?
People talk all the time about purpose and choice. In fact, in my chosen line of work, the students I have encountered over the past thirty years have questioned: What should I do with my life? Granted, that is the question every person asks, usually over and over, for in asking, we are pondering our futures. However, may we consider how our life’s purpose is much grander and exceedingly greater than the careers we choose. If fact, the Bible explains how we were granted our life-purpose the day we chose to accept Jesus. Without a doubt, we are to glorify the Lord in all that we do.
“For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 6: 20 NASB)
Our lives are not our own, because when we gave our hearts to Jesus, we gave: our hearts, our thoughts, our actions—to God. Our lives now belong to God, not to ourselves. Therefore, we are to pray, to preach, to testify and witness to the lost, loving like Jesus.
We must for the Bible tells us how the devil has his purpose too.
“the one who practices sin is of the devil;
(The 1st Letter of John 3:8a NASB)
for the devil has sinned from the beginning.”
From the time when we realize our guilt for the sin we commit, we are blessed with a choice.
- Choose to reject Jesus and belong to Satan. OR
- Choose to accept Jesus and belong to God.
The choice is each person’s to make. Even if we prolong making the choice, then we are STILL MAKING A CHOICE, for if a person does not accept Jesus, then the person is really choosing to remain lost and totally separated from God. Therefore, those who have been redeemed, are called to pray for the lost, for those who do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
If we do not pray for them to come to Jesus, then who will?
We are also called to live a godly life, drawing others to Jesus through the life they see in us, and to verbally testify about Jesus, to not remain silent. In living the life, the one we have been called to walk, we see the purpose for our lives. So, daily, we are to examine ourselves:
- How am I doing with God’s purpose for my life?
- Did I walk well yesterday? &
- Can I do better today, walking with the Lord?
In closing, we read in God’s Word the reason the LORD came in the person of Jesus to dwell among man on earth. The apostle Paul wrote about this when he was mentoring a young man, a preacher named Timothy.
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to Timothy 2: 3-6 NASB)
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”
There is a song lyric that goes like this—
“Where would we be—if we did not have Jesus.
“Where Would I Be” by Peter Burton
Thank God, I’ll never know.”
Choose whom you will follow. As for me, the lyrics speak my truth. It’s such an amazing, glorious blessing when we can proclaim: WE HAVE GIVEN OUR HEARTS TO JESUS.