901 What If I Screw Up?

Do you ever fear not being good enough? Do you feel like surely something you do will mess up God’s good plans for your life? Are you continually fearful that your mistakes and misteps will take you so far out of the will of God that you may miss your eternal destination with him? Earlier this week I had a conversation with a woman who wildly loves Jesus. She seeks to honor him and live the life he died to give her. However she continually worries about her own ability to do everything right to maintain those good standings with God. Well let’s get right to the heart of this because if you’re walking around afraid something you do or don’t do is going to cancel your welcome into Heaven, you’re probably living in a whole lot of fear and missing steps of opportunity on the daily. Yeah, let’s go ahead and talk about this! Can you screw up your own salvation? Can you accept Jesus, but then do something that causes him not to accept you? Well, what brought you into a place of salvation in the first place? Was it your perfection? Was it your holiness? Was it your righteousness? Was it your perfectly placed steps knowingly taken within the will of God? Was is your stellar performance or impressive success? Nope. None of that. Not a single thing you ever did was taken into consideration for your salvation. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” My wild guess is, you’re included in that ‘all’. I know it’s a real shot in the dark and I could be wrong, but I’m assuming you too have screwed up and fallen short of perfection. If I’m wrong, you go ahead and message me, but I’ll move forward here assuming you’re part of the “all” that don’t measure up and you’re with the rest of us that have fallen short a few times. Every single one of us have been excluded from the glory of God. God was going to have to turn his back on all of us because his holiness cannot look at sin. His righteousness cannot be in the place of such unrighteousness. (Is that a word? If God is righteous, we are the ‘un’ version of that.) And THIS is why God sent his son Jesus. This is exactly why Jesus sacrificed his life. He is the holy sacrifice. His blood makes the unrighteous righteous. Covered in the blood of Jesus, God’s presence never leaves us. His eye is always on us. His hand is always over us. Your salvation is solely about what Jesus did for you. Your ticket to heaven is stamped with the blood of Jesus. Because it’s not what you did, and all what he did, you can’t stumble into some sort of stupidity that might jeopardize your eternity in Paradise. Your part is simply to accept it, or not. Grab your ticket and live your life, or refuse your ticket and miss what has already been done for you. You are securely in the hands of God. You can drop your need to perform and earn your place with him. You can stop living your life in fear that you’re going to screw this thing up. Honey, you’re not that powerful. Last week in the episode about the sheep falling in the ditch we looked at John 10: 27-29 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Yip, still true today. No one is able to snatch you out of the Father’s hand. God has given you to Jesus, Jesus grabbed you and covered you in his blood, and there you are secure. You are held tight. I know some religions tie strings to our salvation. Some give us a list of do’s and don’ts and rituals to follow to keep us in good standings with the Almighty God.