27 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell! Matthew 5:27-30
So many people go throughout life and go to church every chance they can and believe they’re fine. They go through their routine by clicking in their weekly church attendance in their minds and they read their bibles to make sure they make sure Jesus approves of them. Would you be surprised if I told you that people can do all the great things in the world and still be far away from God and actually go to hell. They can give to the poor, tithe to their church, tell the gospel to their friends and their enemies and still be far from God.
According to this passage and others, you can be the perfect Christian on earth and God will still love you but be disappointed in you. Now if you truly have your heart and mind set on Jesus, then you will want to do all those great things , which is great. Jesus once said that their will be people that will proclaim the Lord but still be lost and go to hell in Matthew 7:21-23. They were preachers and other leaders possibly, but because their hearts didn’t have Jesus, they will go to hell.
I personally find this terrifying if I wasn’t 100% sure of my salvation but even with my salvation secured, it is still a warning to all of us Christians. I can’t remember the number of times that I’ve been at Church and thinking of anything but the word of God, or I’ll show unrighteous anger or cuss or whatever my sin for that day is right after I was reading my Bible or coming from Church. This is a warning to me because it shows that even though I was doing the ‘Christian thing‘, my heart was far from God at that point.
So what do we do to get back closer to God? Obviously pray for help from God and when we are reading our Bibles, actually think and dive into the word and not see it as another assignment or just a text we are required to read. Read it to know more about the man and God that came down when he didn’t have to and died for us. Be honest with him in your prayers, Jesus knows what is going on already, no point in hiding it. And the last point, have a group of friends that will keep you accountable and gravitated towards Jesus.
Like I said earlier, a good group of friends can get you out of a lot of bad situations. Whenever I started messing up, my friends would bring me back to reality and stop me from going further down to my dark heart. If I didn’t have the group of friends that I did, I would not be surprised if I ended up in prison or dead, because they saw that my heart was going in a bad direction and called me out on it. Your friends can be a tool that God uses to help purify your heart.
I say all of this to say, each and everyday, try your best to pin your sinful desires to the cross, keep a group of friends that are preferably more mature in their faith than you and be intentional in your Bible study and prayers, because if you’re not, you’re just wasting your time. If you are not intentional, your heart will gradually go towards what is natural and that is sin. So keep checking your heart and if you are not sure if you are saved and going to heaven, you can always comment or message me and I will respond as quickly as I can. I hope you all have a great day and thank you for reading my thoughts for today.
The Bible Life 