Making faith your goal

You really can believe

OK, so, a disclaimer; I may use a few Christian jargon expressions, because, simply put, they’re not that difficult to understand as long as I give a little explanation.

You, I, we can’t do life successfully without faith. Life that leads to eternal life that is.

We’re only here in this world so that we can find the passage into the next, and I’m not talking about some reincarnation-as-a-butterfly kind of faith.

We need to really consider what happens after we’ve reached our time limit on earth and pass over into the next phase of existence.

Biblically there is no obliteration of the soul. We will go on and on. For some that might seem daunting, and well it might be if you’re on the wrong side of the agenda when it comes to stepping over the line called death.

But the reality is that being ready for the next part of our everlasting journey isn’t as fraught or difficult as some make it out to be, particularly those religions that demand a works-based eschatology.

In fact, doing good in human terms isn’t enough for a faith life with Almighty God. He tells us that our own righteousness won’t cut it in His kingdom. It’s just too dirty.

You can try as you might to achieve some kind of perfection on human terms and you will fall short every time. “But I always do good!” That is great, but it still fails.

How’s it so simple, then? Well, we need to accept that our own attempt at being good and being virtuous isn’t enough and we need something, well, in fact, we need everything, from God. Only He can bring us to that point where true right standing is available.

And it comes by faith. What kind of faith, you ask? The kind of faith that acknowledges our own shortcomings, and our need of a drastic change spiritually, and accepts His free offer of salvation.

Yes, free offer. We can’t pay for it. We can’t earn it. We don’t even deserve it. It is given despite our inadequacies, our former rebellion, and our rejection of His will.

All we have to do is accept the offer from Him and allow ourselves to come under His tutelage and His direction.

This called grace. He grants us the gift of eternal life despite our weaknesses. He paid for it through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life at the cross so that we could retain ours through faith in Him.

It’s a free gift. You can’t pay for a free gift. You accept a gift. He paid. He grants. We accept the offer.

How? We believe this to be true and ask Him to forgive us for trying things our way, for attempting to work our own way to heaven, for disregarding our need for Him, and for ignoring His offer of life before today.

So, it’s all by faith. God’s grace. Our faith, which He also grants us. His gift. Our acceptance. We confess our need of salvation. We accept Jesus as Lord, vocalise it before witnesses, and we believe that we are forgiven, saved and accepted in the Beloved.

Yes, it’s as simple as that. There’s nothing you can do to please God but to believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Are you ready?

[Photo by Ernest Karchmit for Unsplash]