What About You?

Like most Jews, I knew virtually nothing about the Bible, although I was 22 at the time. In fact, I don’t think I could have quoted for you a single verse from the Jewish Scriptures. But when I got up from my knees, after telling God I believe Jesus is the Messiah, Satan helped me remember what was likely the only verse I ever knew at the time: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Suddenly a little nervous, I went back to my knees and I said what remains etched in my memory: “God, if I’ve made a mistake, please show me.”

And He did. Right then. In a moment. Somehow, mysteriously, in a way I could not then describe it – nor can I even now adequately describe it – God flooded me with a sense of His pleasure with me.

And I knew what I needed to do next. I’d just promised to consecrate myself to my Creator, so I stood up again, walked to the closet, and pulled a baggie of marijuana from a drawer. I dumped it down the toilet. My porn magazines ended up in the trash dumpster behind my navy barracks.

Why did I do that? Because when I was on my knees, I determined to follow Jesus, and His way is the way of holiness. I didn’t know the term for what had happened to me, but with my confession of Jesus as Messiah, God made me a new creature in Christ.

I bought a Bible the next morning at the Navy Exchange and began devouring God’s word. It didn’t take the Holy Spirit long afterward to convince me that I’d truly not made a mistake. A few weeks later I followed the Lord’s commandment and was baptized.

So, reader, enough about me.

When did YOU know you’d not made a mistake to confess Jesus as your Lord? You might have been baptized as a baby, or you went forward to an altar as a child. But have you as an ADULT said to God, “I will follow Jesus in a holy lifestyle all the days of my life”?

If it’s been a while since you said that to God, I urge you to go to your knees right now – physically, if you can, or simply in your heart – and tell Him you are consecrating yourself to Jesus and will strive for a holy lifestyle all the rest of your days.

You will never make a mistake to do that.