The Act of Marriage: The Beauty of Sexual Love (36 page)

You must repent of your self-will and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by personal invitation to have that fellowship and happiness restored.

The Three Steps to Receiving Christ

1.
Repent.
“Unless you repent [turn from self-will to God’s will], you too will all perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance means a willingness to turn from your own ways, your self-will, and follow God’s ways. Some have mistakenly assumed that they must turn from their sins to be converted, but this is impossible until first they look to God. He then will turn you around and cause you to forsake your sins.

2.
Believe.
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). The word
believe
literally means “to rest upon” or “to take completely at His word.”

3.
Receive.
Christ said, “Here I am! I stand at the door [of your life] and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat [fellowship] with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

Receiving Christ as Lord and Savior

Receiving Jesus Christ as
Lord
and
Savior
involves turning the control of your life over to Christ, making Him Lord of your life. At your invitation He will come into your life to cleanse you from past sins and guide your future.

The self life	The Christ-controlled life

These diagrams clearly picture the two kinds of spiritual lives extant. The self life shows self on the throne making the decisions of life, with Christ symbolically pictured outside the life. This individual may be religious, irreligious, atheistic, or profligate; it really makes no difference. In all cases where self is on the throne, God is the missing dimension in that person’s life, thus making him or her incapable of experiencing true happiness. Before a person has lived many years, he or she will begin to experience the misery, confusion, emptiness, purposelessness, fear, and guilt with increasing intensity—just as we have pictured it.

As we travel around the country and meet people from various walks of life, we customarily confront individuals with these five keys to happiness. When we demonstrate the empty results of the self-controlled life to people, they almost always agree with us. Indeed, I have never known a person of forty years or over to deny the fact that this was his or her personal experience. The only people who disagreed (and there have been only a few) were college-age youth whose idealism caused them to determine that they would be the exception. I am confident that the passing of time will dissolve that objection for them.

The Christ-controlled life

The Christ-controlled spiritual life is the result of an individual’s receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by personal invitation. Note that we did not say accepting Christ “as Savior.” The Bible repeatedly refers to the salvation experience as the result of accepting Christ as
Lord
and Savior. Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Whenever individuals are willing to recognize their self-will and call on Jesus Christ to save them from past sins and become Lord of their future, Christ comes into their lives to take control of the throne of their will. The self-will then becomes a servant to Christ. The
S
in the diagram no longer represents self; it now stands for
servant.

Jesus Christ first brings into people’s lives abundant pardon for past sins, producing in their hearts a peace that was previously unknown. Believers have the power of God resident within to begin overcoming their sins, bad habits, and weaknesses. Furthermore, they possess the joy of the Lord and the love of God to extend them abundantly to others. This is the Spirit-controlled spiritual life that produces happiness.

Receiving Christ Personally Through Prayer

Receiving Christ is a very personal experience. No one else can do it for you. As you would invite a guest into your home, so you must invite Jesus Christ into your heart personally. Prayer is simply talking to God, who is more interested in the attitude of your heart than in the words you say. If you need help in forming a prayer, here is a suggested prayer:

Dear heavenly Father, realizing I am a sinner and can do nothing to save myself, I desire Your forgiveness and mercy. I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross, shedding His blood as full payment for my sins, and rose bodily from the dead, demonstrating that He is God.

Right now I receive Jesus Christ into my life as personal Lord and Savior. He is my only hope for salvation and eternal life.

Give me understanding and increasing faith as I study Your Word. I surrender my will to Your Holy Spirit to make me the kind of person You want me to be.

I pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.

Does this prayer express the thoughts of your heart? If so, pray now to the heavenly Father; the Bible guarantees that Christ will answer your prayer and come into your life.

How to Know You Are a Christian

A Christian is one who has Christ in his or her life. If you sincerely asked Christ through prayer to come into your life, you can be sure He has. God cannot lie, and He promised to come in when invited (Rev. 3:20).

The Bible guarantees to you eternal life. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11–13).

Thank Him regularly for coming into your life.

How to Become a Strong Christian

When you were born physically, you needed certain things for growth—food, exercise, and knowledge. So it is spiritually. The following suggestions will help you:

1.
Read the Bible daily.
The Bible is God’s message to you, but it will meet your needs only if you read it. It is advisable that you concentrate on reading in the New Testament, preferably the gospel of John, the first epistle of John, and the books of Philippians and Ephesians. Then read consecutively through the New Testament. It is impossible for anyone who does not regularly read God’s Word to become a strong Christian.

2.
Pray daily.
God is your heavenly Father; He wants you to call on Him regularly (Matt. 26:41).

3.
Go to church regularly.
You will never become a strong Christian unless you consistently attend a Bible-teaching church where you can hear more of God’s Word. You have only begun to learn about the many exciting things God has planned for you. You also need to make Christian friends; church is the ideal place to do it (Heb. 10:25).

4.
Identify with Christ.
Make this identification public by following Him in believer’s baptism (Matt. 28:18–20). Once you have been baptized, you should officially become a member of the church where you were baptized and seek to serve the Lord with that congregation.

5.
Share your new experience with others.
Relating what Christ has done for you will both strengthen you and help your friends to receive Christ (1 Peter 3:15).

6.
Study the Bible.
In addition, take advantage of the excellent Bible-study helps available today. Your church no doubt will be able to help you find such aids. If not, the Christian bookstore in your community has an ample supply.

	Let Jesus Christ direct the daily decisions of your life, and you will enjoy inner happiness regardless of the circumstances around you.
“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:6 NKJV).

You have to invite Jesus Christ into your life only once, but to let Him control your life requires a daily commitment. He wants to help you make all the decisions of life so that you can experience the maximum happiness He has in store for you.

The Happy Life—A Christ-controlled Life

The only truly happy Christians are those controlled by Christ. Jesus said, “Now that you know these things [the principles of God found in the Bible], you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17).

The self life	The Christ-controlled life