Before Jesus Changed My Life

Before Christ, I was living for myself. I was the prize of my life. I was a "good" person. I was living a morally good life. I was doing everything right. Sure, I mean, I dabbled in sin. But I wasn't doing a lot of sinning. I wasn't doing a lot of drugs. I wasn't drinking a lot. I never cheated on my wife. I was "good" in the world's eyes.

How Jesus Changed My Life

BUT GOD through his riches of mercy saved my life. He showed me how selfish I was in all my "good" decisions. He showed me true love. He showed me true obedience. He showed me that I was not prizing Him and Him alone as I should. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” This makes it clear that I did nothing to earn salvation.. It was only grace. Like how freeing is this that I don't get the opportunity to screw it up? I just have to let God do his thing in my life. Much like a toddler, I just have to lift my eyes and arms up to my Father and ask to be held. Who better to obtain guidance and wisdom from than the creator of the world? Because of Jesus, we get God! Like this is the best news ever. God so loved me that he didn't wait for me to clean up my life, instead he sends his only son on a rescue mission for me- “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Through this I am now reconciled with God. He lived the perfect life I could never live, died the death I deserved, and was buried for three days before conquering the grave. That's the beauty of baptism is that you get to see those parts all played out in the dunking into water and being raised to new life in Christ.

My Life After Jesus Saved Me

My life is full of the fruit of the spirit now. If you were to take a bite out of me, you would taste every flavor of that fruit. My life has joy, peace, contentment, self-control, etc. I will have to say the biggest thing for me has been the aspect of forgiveness. Like I would "forgive" people before, but I always held onto something. But if you remember that Romans 5:8 verse from earlier, I don’t have to wait for people to apologize to me. I can have the freedom to lay it at Jesus’ feet and truly forgive this person. Even through divorce. Even through my dad being sentenced to prison for acts against my kids. Even for the car that cuts me off. I have God!