By
Michelle Akers
When I really started
to look at the scheme of life closely, I thought, I just can’t
be here to win soccer trophies and championships. I mean, when
it’s all said and done, who really cares if you’re
the best in the world or you make the most money or have the
hippest clothes, or if you are fat or skinny or bald or whatever?
I knew I was missing something.
That is the moment
I said OK to God. "Here is Your shot," I told Him. "I am giving
You my wrecked body and life. Let’s see what You can do
with it." Well, to my surprise, God started to clean house.
The cool thing is God wants you to know Him too. And He waits
ever so patiently for you to turn to Him. Christ is available
to everyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you have
done or what you are facing.
He will change your
life. That’s why they call it the gift of grace. You can’t
earn it, and you certainly don’t deserve it. But God loves
each of us so much that He let His Son die so we could know
Him personally.
Here are four principles
that will help guide you in your first steps toward a new life
in Christ.
1. One love, one
purpose
Know that God loves you and He created you to know Him personally.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
2. We all fall
way, way short
We are separated from God because we are sinful, so we cannot
know Him personally or experience His love. "All have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
3. The Gift
There is only one way to know God and that is through His Son,
Jesus Christ. Christ died in our place … then He rose from
the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).
4. By invitation
only
We must individually receive Christ; then we can know God personally
and experience His love.
We can only receive
Christ through faith and by personal invitation. It takes faith
to ask God into your heart; and, with this faith, you must ask
Christ to be that bridge to God, to be your Savior. You must
personally choose Christ to be the foundation and center of
your life … "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if
any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to
him" (Revelation 3:20).
When we receive Christ,
we are born again. Read John 3:1-8.
To become a Christian,
you need only say a short prayer and acknowledge the death of
Christ in your place and your need for Christ to be at the center
of your life.
If you can’t
find the words, let me help you. You can say this prayer. It
is the same one that I prayed to become a Christian when I was
14.
Knowing
God