7 Reasons Why You Should Let Jesus Ruin Your Life

I'll start with a bit of my personal testimony. I was born and raised into a large church that I attended with my family every Sunday. My family on both sides were associated with Christianity and many of them attended the same church that I did growing up. I never really went to church for any reason other than I had to and the fact that I had a lot of close friends there. Fast forward to middle school, my parents stopped going to church and I did too for a while. At this point in time, I had heard of the word "sin" (an act or thought that is not inspired by God but rather for personal gain), but never really knew what that meant in my life or how it affected me in terms of eternity. Then I made a friend in middle school who brought me out to his smaller church (which I still attend). At this church, I was older and more mature so I decided to give God a try. I learned that being a christian wasn't about a single prayer I prayed or coming to church every Sunday, but rather the personal relationship I had with God. Coming to church, prayer, and reading the Bible are obviously important things, but are not what make you a believer in and of themselves. It seems kind of ridiculous to those outside of the faith, but I want to encourage you that I am living in this relationship right now; it's real. I have conversations with God, I know of the grace that he's shown me (and continues to), and he blesses and corrects me in all different aspects of life. After coming to personally know God I didn't suddenly stop sinning, but rather became more aware of it and no longer wanted it in my life. As a pastor once told me, when we become true believers we don't become sinless, we just sin less. Although it isn't promised in the Bible that life as a Christian is smooth sailing, the cost of the journey is well worth it.

In the Bible, Jesus tell us "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29 NIV) We are called to be people who have faith in all that the Bible says Jesus did for us, without actually seeing him in our own lifetime. The Bible itself is a book with genuine history in it; many people wonder if the Bible, being so old, could have been changed over time. However, there have been many archaeological finds of manuscripts from the time of the original texts, and throughout time (up to today), the story does not change. Nevertheless, there is a time and place for evidence outside of the Bible, because it can help us and our naturally skeptical brains. One of the most important pieces of evidence is the fact that Jesus was really alive here on earth, that he lived among us. A Roman historian by the name of Cornelius Tacitus is known to be one of the most accurate presenters of ancient history to date. He himself wrote about the existence of a man named Jesus who had disciples and was crucified on a cross during the passover. Our entire religion is pivotal on the fact that the God we worship and love was really here on earth and really died for our sins, and there is plenty of secular evidence that points to the fact that he was really alive. Also, many of those who do not believe in the Bible believe that the world was created by the theory of the Big Bang. But, if you look at the actual science behind the theory, it shows that for it to have been at all possible, there would have to have been a perfect sequence of events leading up to the Big Bang itself, and those events have already been proven to have a probability of zero. So, one might say it takes even more faith to believe in the Big Bang theory than it does to believe that there is a higher being that orchestrated the perfect world that we live in.

Some of you may be reading this thinking it sounds all great and dandy, but believe you're "in too deep" to turn your life around now. I'm here to tell you that you're not. We are told in the word, "Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear." The gospel message tells us of a God who sent his own to son to save us from our sins, he died for us and the grace he shows us extends to anybody who believes in what he did for them. A perfect example of that is in a story Jesus told in Luke 15:11-32, the story of the Prodigal Son. This story is also known as a parable, or an analogous type of narrative that Jesus used to convey heavenly messages in ways people could better understand. So, the parable starts with a man and his two sons, the younger of the sons asks his father for his part of the inheritance. The son takes the money and leaves home, looking for a life of wealth and wild fun; but, he ends up losing all of his money. The boy is scared to, after having left his father and doing wrong, go back to his home and ask for forgiveness. So, he makes a plan to ask his dad if he can be like one of the servants in their home, as it would be better than starving to death. However, upon arriving at his home his father sees him off in the distance and runs to him, hugging and kissing him. His father was so filled with joy that his son had returned to him he threw a feast and party in his honor. The son said to his father he was unworthy of being called his son, but the father's only concern was that the son whom he so loved had returned home. The story illustrates for us the type of relationship we have with our Father in heaven, God. He so longs for all of us to return home to him where he will prepare a feast for us and celebrate, proclaiming that we were once dead (in our sin), but are now alive. Remember that nobody is too far gone for God.

As I mentioned earlier, God does not only want for us to be perfect citizens who follow every commandment of his; he wants a relationship with us. In John 17:1-4, Jesus is praying to his Father in heaven (God), and says that he was given the authority, by God, to give all of us eternal life. This phrase called eternal life is often thrown around and many people know of its implications. They believe eternal life is to live forever, or life beyond death, and many other religions have their own beliefs as to what it is. Although those things are not wrong, Jesus tells us what eternal life truly is in verse 4 of John 17. He says, " Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:4 NIV). Many of us have not heard this definition of eternal life before, that it means us knowing God and Jesus Christ. This word "know" holds more meaning than we may think. In the Greek, know is translated to ginóskó which holds implications of relationship and intimacy. So, Jesus is telling us here that the reason he died for us on the cross, to give us eternal life, was so that we may know our Father in heaven and his son personally. For some of you, relationships may carry a negative connotation. Relationships with our family and friends can be rocky and lead to heartache. We may feel abandoned or forgotten, but there is no such feeling when you have a relationship with the Lord. He says,"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deut 31:6 NIV) Unlike relationships with other people, who are only people after all, and will make mistakes, one with our God is guaranteed to last for eternity.

"He [Jesus] replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” " (Matt 12:48-50 NIV) When we come into relationship with Christ, we join his heavenly family. As this verse states, we become brothers and sisters with other believers of Christ, and throughout the rest of the Bible we are shown how we are to treat our brothers and sisters. 1 John 4:21 says, "And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." So, with all of this in mind, how does it relate to the world we live in today? If you take a look around, many of us are trapped in our hatred of one another, unable to accept and love each other for who we are. An easy example would be the past presidential election; I have never seen so much hatred from two different parties of people, how much easier would it be if we had a reason to love one another, not hate?

This is a reality that none of us can escape. We as humans seem to have a tendency to make distinctions amongst ourselves, whether it be by race, economic status, success; we are very good at separating from one another. Despite that, there is a natural equalizer between all of us and that is death, we will all die one day. Now, none of us know when that day will be, but that only adds on to the list of reasons why you should let Jesus "ruin" your life. According to the UN, 6,775 people die in the United States alone per day. That could be any one of us and we wouldn't even know it. We are taught in Psalm 39:5 that "You [God] have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure." (Psalm 39:5 NIV) No matter what life protection or bodyguards or medication that the best money buys we have, we are still prone to death at any time in our lives, we are but a wave tossed in the ocean. Knowing this, we should not and cannot waste away our lives chasing the things of this world. If you think about it, none of the things that we work so hard for, struggling through college and jobs, like money and security and prestige are worth it. Once we die, we cannot take any of those things with us to the next life, they will stay here on earth along with our bodies, and what happens to us afterwards is only a repercussion of our actions while we were alive.

A question commonly asked by people, especially those in college, is "What is the purpose of life?" A man by the name of Solomon in the Bible can help us with that one. He was known to be one of the wisest men to walk this earth, and collected much of his understanding in the book of Ecclesiastes. In this book, he recounts the things he did throughout his life in search for a purpose. He came up with 3 main ways that people on earth attempt to create for themselves a purpose (and explored each of them on his own). Those 3 ways were wisdom, pleasure, and toil (hard work). So, he first explored the life of wisdom. He studied so much that he proclaimed that he was the wisest man in all of Jerusalem; after doing so, he also said that it was all meaningless. He testified that having all of that knowledge only led to more sorrow. Next, he tried the avenue of pleasure. Many of us struggle with this as well, whether it be binge watching tv shows for entertainment or drinking a little bit too much. Solomon also tried all of these things, he even built gardens and vineyards to try to fill himself with a sense of accomplishment; but, in the end he found all of these never seemed to fulfill what his heart longed for. Finally, he looked into hard work. He thought that maybe if he worked really hard for the things he wanted he would be happy with his life. I think almost all of us can attest to this too, especially as college students. We come to college to get a good education, to get a good job, to have a good life. But lets take it from someone who already tried that. Solomon did all of that too, and found that it was all in vane, why? Because after we die all we have goes to someone else who will inherit it, someone who didn't work for it themselves, and we have no way of knowing whether or not they will put any of it to good use. In the end however, he found what life was truly about. It was lifting up all of these things to the one who first gave them to us, God. As we glorify the Lord with these things; wisdom, pleasure, and toil, he gives them meaning that cannot be found without him.

TL;DR (too long; didn't read) :
I know I might have gone a bit overboard in each of the categories, but I'll end with this. The basic gist of what I said is that our lives here on earth are short. We don't know when we might die and in response to that, we should take a glance into eternity. The God above offers us relationship with him, something priceless. So don't take my word for it, go ahead and try reading the Bible for yourself. Earnestly seek The Lord, and he will be found. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matt 7:7 NIV)