ARE YOU A CHILD OF GOD?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.
(Romans 10:9)

MEDITATION:
Salvation:
    A word that many choose to ignore throughout their lives, but they
    will desire it the most when they step into eternity and realize it is
    too late. Those who have never been saved will experience the horror
    of ‘paradise lost’…. forever.

With that in mind, there are a couple of questions we should consider.
The first question is,
    “What causes people to avoid receiving God’s free gift of salvation?”

For one thing, the world has a way of distracting people from the most
important things (and decisions) of life. As long as we remain distracted,
we will fail to realize how critical it is for us to surrender to the Lord and
commit to His will. The more a person’s heart and mind is filled with the
things of the world, the less room they will have for the Lord.

Distraction is one of the ways Satan confuses people and clouds their
minds regarding what is important, and what is not.

Procrastination is probably the most powerful weapon Satan has at his
disposal. If he can convince everyone to delay deciding to turn from sin,
and turn to the Lord, he can succeed in unleashing his other weapons
of destruction.

Why? Because he knows we are more vulnerable when we fail to let
the Lord assist us in repelling and rejecting his attacks (we are not
strong enough to fight back in our own strength). Ask anyone who
has surrendered their life to the Lord, if Satan’s attacks continue.
Ask them if the Holy Spirit has helped them deflect Satan’s attacks.

The second question we should consider is,
    “What is required of us to receive salvation from God?”
To answer this question, we should read God’s Word and see
what His requirements are for us to receive salvation. When
we read Romans 10:9, we see two of our major responsibilities.

Taking them in reverse order, we see that we need to believe that
God raised Jesus from the dead. The scriptures tell us that true
belief (aka faith) is much more than an intellectual understanding
of the facts. It is a faith that pierces the heart of man; a faith that
results in a life being completely changed because we discovered
a love for Jesus and how His sacrifice rescued us from the eternal
punishment we deserve.

True faith means to surrender our will and commit to following
Jesus (which includes becoming more like Him). Think of it in
military terms. When we enlist in the military, we are committing
our lives to do the things they want us to do.

We may have some personal things we would like to do, but we
have chosen to allow the military to tell us what we must do in
order to become physically and mentally prepared for combat.
We have put our trust in them to transform us from civilians
to a structured lifestyle as soldiers.

We may not know Jesus through the five physical senses, but we
know Him through the sixth sense God gives every person, which
is the ability to believe. We put our trust in God to transform us
from a lifestyle of worldliness to a new lifestyle of godliness.

That means we will become less sinful and more righteous because
we are being trained and conditioned to develop the characteristics
of the one we are following – Jesus.

When our heart believes, we will have a genuine love for the Lord
and a desire to spend time with Him. And when we do, we will begin
to develop His thought processes, habits and actions. The more time
we spend reading His Word and praying, the more we will want to
spend time with Him.

Spending time with God is a declining desire for many people of faith.
We see evidence of this lack of desire as more Christians are choosing
to replace worship with any number of other things; in essence they
no longer consider the Lord as the number one priority in their life.

When we had a pandemic, many had to avoid group gatherings due to
medical conditions, compromised immune systems, etc. The challenge
for any in those circumstances was to continue worshipping the Lord
from home.

Many churches have a way for members to stay connected with
their church family. But even if connectivity is not available at
our own church, there are other churches ‘airing’ their worship
services. If we cannot attend worship services onsite with our
brothers and sisters in Christ, we should ask ourselves:
    “How am I continuing my worship from home?”
    “Have I gradually stopped worshipping altogether?”
    “Have I allowed other things to take the place of worship?”

The second requirement we see in Romans is to ‘confess that Jesus is Lord’.
In other words, we should not claim to have faith that God raised Jesus
from the dead and then remain silent about our beliefs. We are to be
ready and willing to tell others how the Lord has changed our lives.

We ought to speak freely about our faith because it is important to us,
and because we want others to seek Him as well. That’s the same desire
God has:
    The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
    slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to
    perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
    (2 Peter 3:9)

When we confess that ‘Jesus is Lord’, it means we have given Him
control of our lives. We have replaced our will with obedience to
His will, and we have a desire to please Him in all things. It’s not
an easy transition but it requires a conscious effort from us. We
can’t grow closer to the Lord and be obedient to Him, if we choose
to remain idle and do nothing.

We should be sensitive to opportunities for sharing with others
how the Lord has changed us. It might be uncomfortable for us
at first, but the more we talk about how He has blessed and
changed us, the more comfortable we will become in sharing
our faith with others. It doesn’t mean we all become preachers,
but it means discussing God and Jesus has become a comfortable
part of our casual conversations.

ACTION:
Questions to consider:
    – Have I completed God’s requirements for being saved?
    – Has my heart been pierced with a faith in God and His
       resurrection of Jesus?
    – How am I confessing to others that Jesus is Lord of my life?
    – What ‘pre-salvation’ habits are still evident in my life?
    – Will others be interested in a relationship with Jesus
       by the things they see in me?
    – How am I different now than I was before receiving salvation?

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Your plan of salvation. You know
better than I do how Satan’s goal is to prevent people from receiving
Your salvation. You also know that without You, we cannot withstand
his attacks. I pray that my belief in Your Word has not remained in
my head but has also penetrated my heart. Help me to evaluate my
confession that Jesus is Lord, to determine if I have given Him total
control; so that all I say and do will point others to You. Forgive me
if I have placed You anywhere other than first in my life, and help
me to repent and return You to where You belong.”

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