I wasn’t brought up in a Christian family and I knew nothing about God or who Jesus was. Like a lot of people I thought that being a Christian was all about being good.
My brother had become a Christian when I was 14. Over the years that followed, and as I met more of his friends from church, I realised that they were absolutely convinced that they were going to go to heaven. It wasn’t a vague hope- it was a certainty. I didn’t understand how anyone could be so sure that they were good enough. But I thought that if there was a heaven, then hopefully I would get in. After all, in my opinion, I’d never done anything that bad.I wanted to believe
My brother explained to me that the worst thing that anyone could ever do is to ignore God. ‘The Bible calls it sin’ he said, ‘It’s living your life your own way rather than God’s way.’ I hadn’t been aware of disobeying God but I could see how I had ignored him all my life. I wanted to believe in God and call myself a Christian but I knew that I had done so many bad things in my life. I set about trying to be good all the time in an attempt to earn my way into God’s good books. I failed completely and got very frustrated.My whole life changed
But I had missed the whole point of Jesus’ message!
God had sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for all the things that I had done wrong by dying on a cross. He is willing to take all the sin that you and I have in our lives and let us have a relationship with God. In the same way that Jesus came back from the dead, he also offers us a new life - a fresh start. I stopped trying to earn God’s love and realised that He loved me already. I asked Him to forgive me and help me live his way. From that day on my whole life changed knowing that I could go to heaven because of what God had done for me.The next step
The next crucial step was to get involved in a lively local church where I could learn more and meet others who also trusted in Jesus.
I had found the answer to the question:
Am I good enough for God?
No. But he loves me anyway!
