I’ll never forget how God drew me to HimSELF. You see, I grew up as a people pleaser. The church I attended as a teen was works based, which fit my task-oriented, self-sufficient personality well.
I’d heard the Gospel—that Jesus had paid for my failures with His life (John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8)—but it hadn’t resonated with me. My life in high school revolved around sports, and I planned to attend a Division 1 college on scholarship. I didn’t want to follow God at that time because I thought I would lose my identity. So I chose to do life without Jesus.
But God broke through my self-sufficiency when I encountered the Gospel again in Romans 5:7-8: “One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
From these verses, I began to understand what Christ’s death and, more importantly, His resurrection meant. That’s when I committed to following Jesus. What I thought I would have to give up was nothing
compared to what God had given up in sending His Son to die for me.
Then I learned that God didn’t want to change how He’d made me but would use me—my talents and gifts—for His purposes. I didn’t have to be self-sufficient. This eye-opening moment happened many years ago. And while God did begin to change me, it didn’t happen in the way I’d anticipated. My honest desire to please God grew, and my actions soon stemmed from that desire—not from a works-based checklist.
Remembering my testimony helps refresh my faith and lead me back to what is important: my relationship with God and my ongoing desire to live according to His plan.
Do you need to be refreshed today? Think about the moment you chose to become a follower of Christ.
The post Choosing Redemption Over Self-Sufficiency appeared first on Focus on the Family.
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I’d heard the Gospel—that Jesus had paid for my failures with His life (John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8)—but it hadn’t resonated with me. My life in high school revolved around sports, and I planned to attend a Division 1 college on scholarship. I didn’t want to follow God at that time because I thought I would lose my identity. So I chose to do life without Jesus.
Choosing redemption
But God broke through my self-sufficiency when I encountered the Gospel again in Romans 5:7-8: “One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
From these verses, I began to understand what Christ’s death and, more importantly, His resurrection meant. That’s when I committed to following Jesus. What I thought I would have to give up was nothing
compared to what God had given up in sending His Son to die for me.
Letting go of self-sufficiency
Then I learned that God didn’t want to change how He’d made me but would use me—my talents and gifts—for His purposes. I didn’t have to be self-sufficient. This eye-opening moment happened many years ago. And while God did begin to change me, it didn’t happen in the way I’d anticipated. My honest desire to please God grew, and my actions soon stemmed from that desire—not from a works-based checklist.
Remembering my testimony helps refresh my faith and lead me back to what is important: my relationship with God and my ongoing desire to live according to His plan.
Do you need to be refreshed today? Think about the moment you chose to become a follower of Christ.
The post Choosing Redemption Over Self-Sufficiency appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...