Are You Good Enough? :: By John Lysaught

You think you are not good enough to go be forgiven by Jesus and go to heaven? You drink every day to excess. You had an abortion. You live a life full of wickedness. You have an anger problem that causes you to hit and curse others, maybe your spouse or children. You are a criminal, or were a criminal who committed horrendous acts of violence or acts against others. You do illegal drugs.

In general you think you are a bad person because you did or are doing something that you know is wrong — against the law and morals of society.

Maybe it isn’t as bad as above. Maybe you have a gossiping problem. Your heart is bitter. You are full of hate and anger. You have mental health problems. You suffer within yourself for things you think were wrong that makes you not “good enough.” Your mind tells you that you are not good enough for Christ.

You get the idea right? You think you aren’t good enough for Jesus. You think the things you are doing or have done exclude you from ever being a Christian. You think you are damned by your deeds and deserve to suffer in hell for what you have done or are doing. You are wrong.

Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those with Jesus. No condemnation means that you are not condemned; you are not censored from the promises of Christ if you are of Him, if you believe in Him as your Lord your Savior. You can be blameless before the Lord. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus as your Lord and you are clean.

Isaiah 43:25: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

Isaiah says that Jesus, if you accept Him will blot out your transgressions, your sins, and he will not remember them at the time of judgment. How can this be? How can your horrible sins, your life of ill-living be forgiven for all the horrible things you have done? It is simple.

We are a fallen race of human beings, destined to commit sin, for sin is in us since Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden and sinned. They went against what God told them not to do. To amend this fall you just need to accept Christ.

Since Adam and Eve sinned, sin has been part of our nature since their fall at the beginning of creation of humans. We cannot help but sin and we get caught up in sin. Just because you have done bad things does not exclude you from the promises of Jesus as long as you accept Him as your Savior.

Don’t be fooled by the devil or the world at large. We all sin, even Christians sin. We cannot help but sin in action or thought. We all made and make mistakes and feel bad for them. But…if you accept Christ as your Savior, those sins ARE forgiven.

No matter what you have done, how little or how great you think the sin or horrid thing you have done would exclude you from Christ, you CAN be forgiven and begin to lead a life of promise from Jesus of heaven as your final destination.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Since the fall of the human race, God made a way for us to escape death and have eternal life. This life is through Christ. God loved us so much that he sent His only Son to us in the world to walk among us and show us the love of God. Jesus had to die, and knew He would, for the sins of all humanity.

He was persecuted and killed in the most horrendous way and in the process took upon Himself the sins of all the world, including yours; so that if you accept and believe in Jesus as your Savior you would not go to hell but have eternal life with Him.

Jesus died, he arose from death three days later and then shortly after ascended to heaven, awaiting the predetermined time to come back to earth to take back His children—those who believe in Jesus as their Savior and are born-again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3).

When Christ died for our sins he didn’t die for just “small” sins or specific sins. He died for ALL sins. Whether you gossiped or murdered, your sin was forgiven by Jesus as long as you accept Jesus as you Savior.

Do you see a theme here? I do.

The theme is that no matter what you have done or what you are doing, the forgiveness is there for you to take. You can live forever blameless before the Lord as long as you repent and accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can be set-free from the bondage that is hanging over your head from what wrongs you have done, regardless of how bad you think they are; they are forgiven by accepting Christ.

Do this and you are a child of the Most High: Jesus Christ.

This isn’t very hard to do. It is rather simple. You have to, in your heart of hearts, pray and ask Jesus to be your Lord and to forgive you of your sins. You can’t just say it, you have to mean it and want it—really want it. You can’t just say this as if in a casual conversation or a prayer that is not heartfelt.

You have to really believe that this Jesus, the Savior is real, that He died for your sins, was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven waiting for us to arrive to be with Him. You have to be ready. You have to want it like water in the desert after days without water. You have to want it more than anything else you desire right now. It’s that easy. But for some of you this will be hard.

Why will it be hard?

Because you are stuck in first gear of your sins. You still think, that regardless of what is said, that Jesus would not accept you. This is not true. Jesus will accept you, no matter what you have done. You are good enough to be a child of the holy Father in heaven. You are good enough to join the ranks of those who will spend eternity in heaven. Regardless of what you think, Jesus loves you and wants you. All you have to do is accept Him.

The world, and I mean the world as in those things and people contradictory to God, as well as Satan, the devil, will have you believe that your transgressions will make you ineligible to be a Christian. The world will do its best to keep you in this thought and will not quit. Even when you become a Christian, the world and Satan will always fight against your heart and mind to make you think contrary to the promise of Jesus’ forgiveness of you sins.

Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

You may think you are not good enough but Jesus thinks differently. Once you accept Christ, you are saved. Your salvation—being saved, means that you will be blameless at the end of the world and during judgment. Your sins will be covered, forgotten about, not seen, washed clean, and you will enter eternity with Jesus.

Jesus is ready for you. He won’t ever turn His back on you if you accept Him. He is at your door, knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to open that door to Him to change your destiny, to be with Him and spend all of forever in heaven.

After reading this, or if you have heard about Christ before or are thinking about becoming saved, you have a very important choice to make: To accept or deny the salvation offered through Christ Jesus. If you don’t accept him now, you may never again get the chance to. When you’re older it may be too late. Next year may be too late. Next month may be too late, tomorrow may be too late. Later today may be too late.

You don’t know when you are going to die, do you?

You may be in an accident that kills you on a drive today or tomorrow. You may have a heart attack or stroke that kills you. You may miss the Rapture of Christians. Regardless, you still have a choice to make and you need to do this.

I urge you to pray about this and open your heart to hear the voice of the Jesus. The tugging of your heart is the sound of Jesus knocking at your door. Open that door and be with Christ.

Don’t be afraid of this. Your past is not important, your right now is important. Your future is what is important. No matter what you have done, no matter how bad you think you are or were, no matter what you have done and think you are not good enough, you ARE GOOD ENOUGH for Jesus.

You are good enough to spend eternity in heaven. You can change your destiny and spend eternity with Christ. Just pray and accept Jesus into your heart and life. This choice is life changing, not only for this time that we are in the world right now, but for eternity, forever.

Make the right choice now. Accept Christ. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!

John Lysaught

John_lysaught@yahoo.com