Living for Jesus

My friends, let us ask you a question. Are you a Christian? Perhaps you are saying, "Yes, we are _all_ taught to be Christians here." But let us look inside our hearts. Have we truly believed on Jesus with our hearts, or do we just believe with our heads? Have we trusted in what our parents have done for us, or on our own good works? Or have we asked God to cleanse our hearts and to make us His own children? Let us be sure that we are on the road that leads to God's home.

When a person opens his heart to receive Jesus as His own Lord and Saviour, many good things happen to him. At that moment all his sins are forgiven. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside him and helps him to do what is right. He becomes a child of God. God becomes his Father and helps him and cares for him. We should always love Him and trust Him even when we have sickness and trouble. God is all the time loving us and we should thank Him for what He lets come to us, because He knows it is good for us. These hard things teach us to be patient and kind.

He showed His great power when He raised Jesus from the dead and made Him live again, and He wants to help us with this same power. With His power He will help us to do right. Even when the devil tries to make us do wrong, Jesus can help us to do right. We should show by our lives that we are His children. He makes us like new people who can follow in His good ways. God showed His love for us when He gave Jesus, His Son, to die for us, even when we were not His friends. His Spirit in our hearts can give us His love, so that we can love other people who are not kind to us. God wants us to be like Him in all these things. He says in His Book, "Love your enemies and do good to those who do wrong to you." By this, people will see that you are truly God's child, because you have His love in your heart, and they will want to follow Him too.

It is very important for us to obey God's Word, and therefore it is important to know what He says. We should learn His Word and think on it, and every day we need to take time to pray to Him. This is the way we can really know Him, and grow in Him. He doesn't want His children to remain like babies, but to become strong in Him so they can be a help to others.

There are many things to pray about. We should thank God for giving Jesus to die and give His blood for our sins. When He did this He defeated Satan and paid the price for the sins of all who would believe on Him. When the devil comes to tempt us to do wrong, or bothers us, we can refuse him through the blood of Jesus. He cannot bear to hear of it, because that was what defeated him, and he must leave us, if we trust in Jesus' blood.

If at any time you disobey God, you will be very sorry, but do not be discouraged. Quickly ask Him to forgive you and trust Him to cleanse your heart, and ask Him to help you not to (do it again) yield to the devil's temptation the next time.

We should thank God for the many good things He does for us, and also for the hard things. He says that He will make everything work together for good for us, if we love Him. We should also pray for those who have not given their hearts to the Lord. (If we pray and trust God for this, His Spirit will talk to them and try to turn them to the Lord ). We can pray about our problems and our troubles. He wants to help us with everything in our lives. He will answer every prayer that is in His will, if we believe Him for it, but He knows just what is best for us. If He does not do it, it shows that He has some better plan. As we trust Him, He will bring more and more joy to our hearts, and we will learn to believe Him for more important things.