When I was just a child, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I used to go to bed at night and speak to god. I didn’t know his name, so I gave him a name that I liked very much, Charlie. Every night I would talk to Charlie and tell him about my life. Little did I know that the God of the universe was in fact listening to me. You see, He likes little children and He especially likes it when they talk to Him.
This went on for months, maybe longer, I don’t really remember how long. But I do remember that one day, this unknown god that I had been talking to, introduced Himself to me. He told me His name is Jesus. Sadly, the adults in my life told me there is no god, so immediately my faith was stolen from me. But, that’s not where the story ends. No, this God, this Jesus, knew that in my heart I was still searching for Him, even though I now doubted that He was real.
He pursued me and even protected me as I grew into a troubled teen, depressed and angry at the world. He would periodically send people into my life who would try to reintroduce me to Him, but I was not interested. Instead I found solace in other things, like alcohol, drugs, and sex. But those things do not really satisfy, as I was soon to realize and even though several years passed, I was still searching, looking for something that would give my life meaning and purpose.
How about you? Are you searching? Perhaps looking for that unknown god? Or perhaps the gods that you’ve been introduced to by people have proven themselves lacking. Lacking in power, strength, substance, love, forgiveness? Perhaps you’ve grown up with religion, but you realized as you grew older, that religion doesn’t satisfy either. It’s just dry and dusty bones, white washed tombs, filled with dead things.
You see, when this unknown god introduced Himself to me a second time, I was now an older teen, and He didn’t simply tell me his real name. No, this time He changed my life! I was literally born again! How you might ask? What did I do? And more importantly, what did He do?
The day that I was born again, I realized that I was a sinner in need of a savior. I came face to face with the magnitude of my own sin and even though I was still young, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, I needed someone to forgive me for all that sin. I needed Someone who could wash me clean and give me a new life, someone who could make me a new creation.
The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23-25 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”
Perhaps you’ve never read the Bible, or maybe you’ve read small passages, but it never made any sense to you. Maybe you were told by the “adults” in your life, that you can’t understand God, you can’t understand the Bible. Could it be that those adults are wrong? Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3-4 “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” He is telling us here that the only thing that is required from us, is to have faith like a little child.
Children have an uncanny and amazing ability to trust. We have a Heavenly Father, who loves us. The Bible tells us in John 3:16-17 “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.”
If you think about it, this plan of salvation really sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Why would God, any god, send His only Son and have Him die on a cross, have Him crucified, for my sin, for your sin? Indeed, only a little child could trust that they have a Father, a Heavenly Father, that loves them so much, that He would make a way, when there was no way. That my friend, requires childlike faith!
Maybe as you have been reading this, you wonder if this God, this Jesus, could save you? Perhaps you have been serving a god who says that you should die for him? You have been told that if you want to go to heaven, you must sacrifice yourself and die for this god to accept you. But my God, my Jesus, says that He died for you and me. He says that if I will believe that He died for my sins, and trust Him like a little child would, that He will give me eternal life in heaven with Him. What a mighty God! What a faithful, loving Father!
If your heart is burning within you and you too want to be forgiven, if you want to know what it is like to be loved this much, then come to Jesus. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you, to forgive you for your sins. Ask Him to have mercy on you and save your soul. He is faithful and He will hear your cries, just as He heard mine when I was just a child.
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