First off, I want to thank the Holy Spirit for prompting me to write this and Jesus for being my Lord and savior. I was driving to work one morning and had a suggestion about writing devotionals. I thought it was a passing thought and didn’t think much of it. Then one morning, I literally woke up and felt a sense of urgency to get a devotional written. On occasion, I’ll be talking with God and mention, if you want me to do something, please make it obvious. This is such an occasion where I feel the strong desire to share how accepting Jesus as my savior changed my life
I get a daily email from Chuck Swindoll from Insight for today (www.insight.org) . He sends an email 6 days a week with very enriching messages. On a side note, God has really touched this man with the Gift to share the word. I strongly suggest people subscribe to some type of medium that shares the word. My profession has me using email often; I found the daily emails to be effective. This might not work for everyone. If you aren’t sure, you should pray for God to show you a method that does have you exposed to the word daily.
I don’t recall where I read this, but you should be prepared at all times to share your testimony on a moments notice. That got me thinking, what if someone asked me? What would I say? Here are three reasons.
- Heavenly Peace
- Perspective
- Attitude
Can you list reasons why? Here they are.
1) Heavenly Peace. It helped change me inside out and bring inner peace. There is a song on the radio that talks about peace. Well, I’m sure there are many songs, but this particular one mentions how accepting Jesus will bring heavenly peace. Like in Matthew 11:28-30
“28“(Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and )YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Sounds pretty good eh? When life has you down and the news continually preaches fear. I’m all for looking for a better way. I think this particular passage sums things up pretty clearly. PS: You’ll find the bible contains many ‘clear’ messages.
2) Perspective – Sometimes referred to as ‘World View’. Pastor Joel had a series of sermons on having a Christen World view. After reading the One Year Bible, I realized eternity is a long time and I wanted to be with Jesus. In
Matthew 25:33:
“He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.”.
Any person with a bit of common sense would go; I want to be a sheep!
3) Attitude – Probably the most challenging is adjusting my attitude. Pride pretty much gets in the way of everything. In my younger years, I was known not to have the most positive attitude. If a particular activity wouldn’t go my way, I made sure to make things hard on those who were in authority. This could be coaches, teachers or just a person in-charge. I recently printed off a saying Chuck Swindoll did a few years ago. Here is a link to http://www.bigeye.com/attitude.htm that contains the say. I suggest you print this poem off, put in a high-traffic area so it reminds you often. I put a copy in my cube. When things become stressful, I glance over and this reminds me to refresh my attitude. My favorite saying in Chuck’s attitude poem is “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”
When you accept Christ Jesus as your savior, the Holy Spirit moves in and help you transform your life. All I know, if a person who is an unbeliever or someone ‘watching me’ waiting for the ‘Jesus fad’ to go away. I doubt the three items I listed will be covered in-depth when discussing how accepting Jesus changed my life. That is why I like about being able to list three powerful reasons. If someone asks me ‘why’, I can elaborate. Be prepared. Practice, take notes, be ready for when the opportunity arrives!
God Bless,
Steve Schofield
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