Journey: A New Believer's Guide to Spiritual GrowthSample

What just happened? Something Good!

Welcome to the trailhead! This is the start of your journey with Jesus. As we get started, we need to ask the question, “What just happened?” Maybe you went back to church for the first time in a long time or maybe you went to a summer camp or maybe you just realized you needed God in your life and reached out for Jesus. 

However you came to faith in Jesus, we know this: something GOOD just happened! And I want to take a moment to explain what that good thing is.

Jesus said these powerful words, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10 NLT)  There’s a devil who wants to destroy God’s plan for humanity. He’s the puppet master behind all the evil in the world, but Jesus came to undo all that.

That’s what makes this such good news -- it undoes the evil that was done from the beginning! And the beginning is how we got into this mess to start!

From the beginning, Adam and Eve; the first two humans, were created by God in perfection. But they blew it; they disobeyed God. The reality is, so have we. We’ve all sinned. This is the bad news.

But here’s the GOOD news. Jesus came to solve our sin problem. The truth is, sin is an incurable disease for us humans. But Jesus did what we could never do.

In legal terms, Jesus’ death satisfied the debt we owed God for all our sins! In medical terms, He administered a cure for our sin disease. 

Jesus did this by dying on the cross, taking the punishment of all our sins upon himself. The one person who didn’t deserve to die because He’d never sinned, took the punishment of our sin!

We’ve been freed from this terrible disease because of what Jesus did for us! It gets even better! This salvation is a free gift! You can’t earn this forgiveness! That might seem counterintuitive, but it’s true. It’s a GIFT!

God sent Jesus to save us from the disease of sin and we accept this gift by faith.  Jesus is God's greatest gift.

Now that’s amazing and that’s what JUST HAPPENED!

You’re forgiven. You now have hope, and can look forward to heaven one day! Plus, you get to experience the joy of walking with Jesus today through all life’s adventures! And you know what? You’re just getting started!!

CHALLENGE:

This week, thank God each day for this gift of salvation. Thank Him for forgiveness and the freedom to know and walk with Jesus. Try not to miss a single day!

Prayer: Father God, thank you for saving me, thank you for calling me your child and welcoming me into the family of God. Thank you, Lord, for forgiving my sins and for the freedom I now have with You. Help me to always remember how thankful I am right now and never take that precious gift for granted. In Jesus’ name, amen.