To be friends with Jesus requires a new life – the old passed away, as if dead, and a new bright, glorious future ahead without the pain and suffering that you once endured on your own.
Christ came to die for our sins and rescue us out of the slavery of sin. As a slave, we were blind and ignorant to Christ by the power and trickery of the Devil. What is required of us to have freedom? “Repent” was Jesus’ instruction. To desire the Salvation, He is offering.
To repent is to acknowledge to God that you are sinful. Or as I remember – knowing you’ve gotten everything wrong! My life was a mess, and death had its fingertips around my neck, and I was fighting to survive. I knew if I died at that moment, my soul would perish also. I wasn’t going to rise to some glorious bliss that so many believe. My soul was in prison.
The penalty of sin is death. It’s like a speeding fine that you don’t pay. You are going to have to pay the consequences. Jesus paid our debt, a debt we couldn’t pay for our Salvation. He died for our sins and to conquer the tricks and tactics of the Devil – a power greater than us.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– romans 6:23
Our friendship with Jesus is in all He is, and all He’s done – His death, His life and risen glory.
I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
– Revelation 1:18
Jesus is the victory Lamb slain for us.
If God has been speaking to you as you have been reading this, ask Jesus to show you your need for Him to be Lord and Master of your destiny and life. You see, when we acknowledge our need first, and then look to the Savior to bring us freedom and are prepared to obey Him, Jesus will show us how to be friends with Him. Our job is to listen and be patient to follow.
Jesus said,
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
– John 10:10
The Devil is real. He hunts those who are weak and those seeking freedom, those people who know there’s more to this life. They are searching like I was searching for the truth.
Jesus also said,
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
– John 14:6
Our Heavenly Father sent Jesus to adopt us as His children. He leads us to Christ’s death on the cross with the acknowledgment that He has overcome all things for us so that we may follow and believe.
As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
– Romans 10:11
Our old life and doing whatever we want didn’t lead us to Salvation, but pain, disappointment and heartache, and most likely, depression. We are seeking something more, but we don’t know what it is until Christ the Savior comes into our lives and shows us it’s Him. We must be prepared to listen to God, be obedient, and have Jesus Christ as our Lord at all costs. He is the one Risen from the Dead and holds the keys to eternal life, no other.
Jesus said,
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”
– Luke 9:24
It makes sense. Jesus is offering us an opportunity to be submerged into all He is, which is glorious, eternal, and victorious over sin and death. We can no longer be friends with who we once were or the things of this world that do not glorify God. We have decided to turn, repent, and are now desiring to be friends with Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Start reading a Bible and begin reading in the gospel of Matthew or John. It will help you on your journey to a new life.
“Leaving this Room,” is my first worship of praise Christian album that I recorded after the Lord Jesus pulled me out of great darkness and I became a child of God.
