Page 17 - RiseUpWarrior

Chapter 5 16 If there is no spiritual fruit in someone’s life, then they feel sorry for what I had done. I had basically prom- are babies, just sitting there doing nothing, getting fed ised God that I would go over there but NOT kiss the by others from week to week. guy, but I had kissed him. I had fully disobeyed but I couldn’t feel bad about it. My heart was cold. Weeks This decision to let God run your life is very important. You would think that when you get saved, you are giv- and weeks went by and Christmas approached, with me ing your life to Christ, and that is when you give him and my cold heart. control. But, for some reason, Christianity in the world I think some people have had this happen to their heart, today has separated these two. I don’t think they should but they just leave it that way. I was not happy about be separate. From what I can tell in the Bible, when my cold heart, I wanted to fx it, but I just couldn’t. I you get saved, you should be giving your life to God prayed, I sang songs to God, and I apologized for dis- for Him to run it, but I just don’t see it in reality in our obeying. But my heart remained cold, and I couldn’t churches. make myself care much about it. I see people who get saved, love God, worship Him, Then I read a verse that said that repentance is a gift and study the Bible, but don’t allow Him into their life from God. Ah ha! decisions. I see people who don’t let Him into the small “…In the hope that God will grant them repentance decisions, and especially not into the big ones. leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that So, I will separate it out for our church today. God is a they will come to their senses and escape from the gentleman, and will not force Himself on you. If you trap of the devil…” want Him to run your life, you have to actually let go of 2 Timothy 2:25 (emphasis mine) the steering wheel. I need God’s help to even start the process of feeling When this happens, God is faithful to start your train- bad for what I had done! So I said a simple cold prayer, ing, and start moving you where He wants you. (because that was all I could muster.) Something like this, “God, would you give me the gift of repentance? I God is a gentleman, and disobeyed you, and I can’t get my heart to even care. I need your help.” will not force Himself on Christmas morning we woke up to a blanket of beauti- you. If you want Him to ful snow on the ground, and all the fun of a delicious breakfast and presents under the tree. Before all the fes- run your life, you have tivities began, all-of-a-sudden my heart just broke into a million pieces and I dropped to my knees. It was crazy to actually let go of the out-of-the-blue! I felt a true repentance, and so I snuck off to a corner of the house, got on my knees, and just steering wheel. cried. When I got up, I felt clean, and my heart felt soft. I was ready to serve God again whole-heartedly. I have since always remembered this experience as a Repentance great lesson in repentance. There are times when you can’t actually repent on your own; it is a gift from God. One day when I was a teenager I wanted to go over But you can ask Him for it, and He is faithful to re- to my boyfriend’s house for a visit, and God told me spond. NOT to go. So I sat in my car and argued with God for a while. It seemed to fnally boil down to kissing, so I Repentance was my favorite of all the Christmas gifts I told God not to worry, I wouldn’t kiss him. God seemed received that year. to give in, so I drove over there. It didn’t take long and we started kissing. So these are basic decisions that I believe are what The whole time I knew I was disobeying God, and my can get you started climbing the RIGHT ladder. heart ached, but I wanted to do it anyway. Thankfully, I You must frst be saved and then actually give your life knew to stop and go home. to God. No taking the steering wheel back. You are a Something happened that day. My heart got hard, and soldier now, and God gets to make the decisions on your I couldn’t fx it. Days went by and I still couldn’t even life; ALL of your decisions. You must be completely