There is Hope!

We juggle more in our normal day than previous generations did in a week! Yet, where has this gotten us? Frustration and depression have people wanting to throw up their hands and cry, “what’s the use?” Would you like relief from daily pressures? Jesus Christ offers to bring real peace into our lives, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28 NKJ)

But it's hard for us to summon hope if we're struggling to pay our bills, if our children won't talk to us, if we're fighting with our spouses, or if we're competing to keep our jobs. That's why Jesus declared, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10 NKJ), and not just Heaven when we die. He's concerned with every aspect of our lives, so we can rest assured that God will provide for all of our needs when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.

If you live your life without regard for God or His guidance, then you're separated from Him by sin.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25 NKJ). The only way to bridge that separation is by being born again. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3 NKJ). The good news is that you're the reason God sent His Son into this world. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17 LB). God wants to give you a new full life, not to count your sin against you, but to erase it through Jesus Christ.

No matter what you've done or how unworthy you may feel, you can go to Jesus and He'll accept you. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15 NKJ). This compassion is what motivated Jesus. "He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26 NKJ).

It's Your Choice

However, that doesn't mean you're automatically born again, nor will God force you to be. You have the God-given right to choose your own destiny. It's not enough to have an emotional experience or to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins. Even though the price is already paid, you must receive Jesus and His sacrifice by faith personally, as an act of your will. "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10 NKJ).

Your heart’s belief and mouth’s confession give God permission to create the miracle of the new birth. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJ).

If your choice is to receive Jesus Christ as Lord, you'll no longer be separated from God. You'll have established a personal relationship with Him. He'll become your Father and you'll become His child. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12 NKJ).

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