I would like to share a perspective on being ready for when Jesus returns or for if we die before then. This can cause so much anxiety and stress and trying to perfect ourselves. Fear of not being ready is very stressful and this post isnt to say we dont repent or we dont strive to be better, but that when we find we cant perfect ourselves that we once again have to trust that Jesus can and not only can but will.
There is a scripture in Micah “The Lord will subdue our iniquities” Micah 7:19
Jesus died on the cross for our sins but it didn’t end there, He rose again alive and is now also “The author and finisher of our faith~
Heb:12:2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We should remember that this was never up to us at all, He chose us, we didn’t choose him, we were just lost in our sins and then one day He shined His glorious light into our hearts.
Joh:15:16: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…
Eph:2:5: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he said that he had confidence in the Lord, not in them~
2Th:3:4: And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
And I am also reminded of the scripture where God says to Jeremiah “But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Jer 1:7
This is a prophecy, not a command. Its God saying “you will” not, “will you?”
My unique (perhaps) perspective is this, when I first gave my life to Jesus and hardly knew much of the bible but the basics, Jesus showed me about salvation being only by grace because of the cross and election by God. John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…”
Then I read about the third man on the cross and noticed that the man didn’t have time to get baptized, didn’t have time to make restitution or open a food bank or start a church, he was dying on a cross, yet because he confessed his sins and asked Jesus for mercy, Jesus said, “today you will be with Me in paradise.” Three things happened and they all confirmed to me that we are truly saved by grace and if there is anything undone in our lives Jesus will ensure it happens before He returns for His people, or if we die here on earth before that.
Shortly after reading about the third man on the cross, I was asked to visit an elderly friend of my family that was dying of cancer, I shared what Jesus put on my heart to share with him and the next day he called his daughter in law and she led him in how to give his life to Jesus and the day after that he died. He was a cranky man all his life but he was a totally new man before he died.
Then shortly after that my husband sent me to a car dealership to sign papers for his purchase of a new car. The woman there that had sold him the car asked me about my keychain, which was a dove. Again I had no experience and just a rudimentary knowledge of the bible, but I explained that to me it represented the Holy Spirit. She asked me several questions about christianity and if I was happy or not…and how to become a christian and she asked me to tell her more but we both had other commitments and her boss was asking her to check on another customer so I left. I was pretty stunned, I wasn’t out proselytizing, (I didn’t even know what that word meant) this woman was practically saying, ‘what must I do to be saved?’ in a car dealership with customers everywhere. So I went home and I got some papers I had where I had jotted down scriptures I had been reading on just this topic, things about ‘born again’ ‘Jesus died for our sins’ ‘No sin too big for Jesus to forgive’ ‘the power of the Holy Spirit to change people’ and I went back to the dealership and gave them to her, she was very thankful, and I left.
Two weeks later I read in the newspaper that she and her daughter had been brutally murdered. That was terrifying but I had this peace in my heart that she and her daughter were in heaven comforted by the One that wipes all our tears away.
The next instance is a woman I knew for many years, she had given her life to Jesus but because of having been abused by a Christian when she was young and being cast out of churches (because she brought up uncomfortable truths) she had some things she used to cope that weren’t Godly. Also she had let some anger build up and had wounded some people on her journey of surviving this life. If you had met her and looked at her outward appearance you would probably say she wasn’t a christian at all, even though she did love God and Jesus, she didn’t advertise that. One day when she got off work she walked to the bus stop to go home and she began calling everyone she could remember and asked them to forgive her and apologized for everything she had done to them, she was on the phone for hours. Her mother told me this when she was explaining to me, through tears, that after she had talked on the phone with her that her daughter had been hit by a speeding car driven by an impaired driver and she was dead. Years before this I had asked that woman, the daughter, if she was ever afraid to die and she always said, “sudden death, sudden glory” She loved God and she knew where she was going when she died, even if she didn’t have it all worked out yet.
We gave our lives to Jesus and we can trust Him, He will do whatever it takes, even at the last minute if necessary, because He promised if we gave our lives to Him, He would save us. Its ok to stop striving for perfection, its ok to just be ourselves and to rest in His love and His assurance, He will indeed save us.
Little Sanctuary Ministries 