Accepting Jesus into your life – no matter what background or religious tradition you were raised with, is wonderfully freeing.

Through Jesus I am released from my attempts to please God or perform.

I don’t have to keep trying to do, or be, or accomplish anything at all.

When I accept Jesus Christ I rely on what He has already done for me.

I don’t have to have confidence in my abilities or my effort to succeed.

That doesn’t mean that I am actively trying to be a loser, but the pressure to do something and achieve sometime FOR God is off. I can’t do anything or achieve anything FOR God. He has already done it for me. No pressure now, just acceptance of what He has done and giving Him praise for the work HE is doing in me.

Until you have found this acceptance, you may never know what this freedom feels like.

Many religious traditions try to load us down with a list of rules or expectations we must live up to in order to earn God’s approval. Nothing could be further from the truth. Until we recognize that it is impossible to earn God’s favor by our own effort, we will always be in bondage to a system of rules.

People often use the Bible to add authority to their list of rules. This is an incorrect use of God’s message to us. God doesn’t need us to follow a list of rules or a set of requirements. He has given us Jesus and we need only rely on what He has already done for us.

This is the type of unconditional acceptance we all yearn for and are drawn to when we find it in people. It is the kind of acceptance every good parent seeks to give to their child (though we never manage perfectly).

Have you ever experienced that freedom? That acceptance?

Would you like to? I’d love to discuss this further with you.

Whatever happens, rejoice in the Lord…We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.  Paul, Letter to the Philippians 3:1 & 3

 

Day 4 Encouraging people to Seek Jesus: 30 ways in 30 days

• Day 3: My Stabilizing Factor 
• Day 2: Knowledge of God and Blessing
• Day 1: Does it make sense to seek Jesus in 2014?