God made it really easy for us to get to Him. He sent His only Son to die in our place for the many sins we do so easily every day. We don’t have to die for our sins.

Grace upon grace.

All we have to do is confess our sin and believe in God. Many people can’t understand this and want to work for their place in heaven. It’s understandable. In our society, you have to work hard to get anywhere in life.

But with God, however, things are different. You can’t work to get a place in heaven. Jesus’ death on the cross has already done the “work” and we can simply go along for the ride.

But we cannot throw work out completely. Although deeds won’t get us into heaven, deeds flow from our gratitude for what Jesus had done for us. Often people cling so much to this idea that deeds aren’t necessary that nobody can actually see that they believe in God. That’s just wrong.

When we believe in God, when we realise what Jesus had done for us, we want to get our lives and deeds in line, because we are filled with gratitude. If our lives and our works, in particular, do not repent too, something’s wrong.

When I had given my heart to God, I will fight every day to no longer do what I had done before. Now I listen to what God’s Word says about how I should live, and then I try my best to get those wrong deeds out of my life.

If I struggle to communicate, if I lose my temper very quickly, if I don’t use the cleanest language and let rip when someone is in my way, I will at least try to work on it and to iron out the creases in my life.

I do what this verse says:

¹⁴Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise, you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity.

My actions must be aligned with what I say I believe. My words can’t say one thing while my actions say another. You see, what we do here on earth and the way we live must make God proud of us.

If our deeds aren’t aligned with what we believe, or if we fall over the same obstacle again and again, God can’t be happy with our repentance.

This is actually a very serious warning. Do what is right or run the risk of missing out on eternal life. Keep on making the wrong choices and chances are you’ll miss the bus to heaven.

Eish!

Scripture
Hebrews 12:14-17

Reflection
Where aren’t your deeds going right?
Where could you miss the bus?
What do you have to do differently?

Prayer
Father, I know there are things that I do wrong. I keep making the wrong choices about some things. I want to do things that will make You proud of me. Please help me. In Jesus’ Name, amen.