TEN COMPELLING REASONS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW OF JESUS CHRIST
1. Because you need Someone who loves and accepts you completely and unconditionally. The love of Jesus crosses all barriers and obstacles. He loves all people, to the point of giving His live in sacrificial love. (Romans 5:8) His love crosses all gender, racial, and even moral boundaries. He knows you perfectly, and He loves you so much it hurts.
2. Because you need forgiveness for your failures. All of us have made mistakes and need God’s forgiveness. Karl Menninger, the great psychiatrist, wrote that if he could convince his patients that they were forgiven, 75% of them could get up and walk out of the hospital! Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross, took responsibility for our mistakes, and through faith in Him, we experience true forgiveness.
3. Because you need a true and fulfilling RELATIONSHIP with God. Religious rules and rituals don’t really satisfy our deepest spiritual needs. The reason for that is that we were created for RELATIONSHIP with a personal God. Knowing God personally, experiencing his love and presence, talking with Him, listening for His voice – that is what is truly satisfying, not empty rituals, endless repetitions, and mindless chanting. We have a God – shaped vacuum that only God can fill, and He does that when we put our faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
4. Because you need His spiritual resources to live a lifestyle of integrity and moral purity. All of us need the strength that Jesus supplies through the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to be people of integrity and moral character. Without His help, it is hard to say “No” to temptation. By His grace, he fills the cracks in our character with His goodness.
5. Because you need Him to heal the broken places and fill the empty places in your life. Very few people go through life without experiencing pain, rejection, heartache, and disillusionment. You may be a person right now whose emotions are raw, with no sparkle in your eye, no joy, no hope for your present and future – just going through the motions of living. Jesus came to give your LIFE! He came to heal broken hearts, to set free those held captive to bondages, depression, and fears. Jesus gives hope. He heals, blesses, restores, reconciles, makes whole. He can do that for YOU.
6. Because you want your life to count. There are many people who appear to care nothing about their lives, and their lifestyles are bent on self-destruction. Many have lost any hope that they are worthwhile or that they can make any constructive contribution, so they give up. Jesus Christ can fill your life with tremendously satisfying and exhilarating purpose. He not only commissions you, He also equips you to make a wonderful difference, if you let Him.
7. Because in Christ you can live consistent with Truth, in accordance with Reality. Jesus said, “I am the truth.” By that He meant, first, that everything He taught was true. Second, He meant that His lifestyle was a demonstration of what He taught. And third, He meant that He was TRUTH incarnate, the norm and embodiment of truth, at every level, in every dimension. Why should we believe Him? When Jesus was asked to provide a miraculous sign to prove His claims were true, He pointed to His death and Resurrection! “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” The evidence for His Resurrection is overwhelming.
8. Because He is your best Friend in times of suffering and He can transform your tragedies into triumphs. Jesus Christ is not a path of enlightenment, nor is He an abstract principle or impersonal force. He is a PERSON who loves you, who empathizes with you in your sufferings, and who is able to respond to your needs in all of the situations and circumstances of your life. Although He does not always intervene to stop tragedies from happening, He does promise to be with us in and through them, and He promises to bring good out of them if we trust in Him. The fact that He is the RISEN Christ tells us that this life is not the end of the story. There is a day of Resurrection upon which all wrongs will be made right, and all accounts will be settled. You can trust Him!
9. Because you can’t pass life’s FINAL EXAM without Him. College exams were often traumatic experiences for me (especially when I hadn’t cracked a book all semester!). For years after graduation, I had nightmares, and I’d wake up in a cold sweat, dreading an exam on some obscure subject I had never seen before. What a relief when I finally woke up and realized – I’m through with all my exams. There is one exam we all have to take – life’s FINAL EXAM. The only passing grade is 100%! “Be perfect.” NO!! No one is perfect. That’s right! And that’s why we all need Jesus Christ. As we stand before God’s throne some future day, and He asks us, “Why should I let you into heaven?”, what will you answer? The good news is that CHRIST has already passed the exam for us! When we put our faith in Christ, we are “justified” (“just-as-if-I’d” never sinned) before God. Our sins are forgiven, and God declares, “PASS!”
10. Because you will NEVER encounter a Person more worthy of your love, allegiance, and service than Jesus Christ! No one can compare with Jesus: the beauty and strength of His person; the authority and power of His teaching; His miracles and healing; His acts of kindness and deeds of self-sacrificing love; His sinless humanity and humble divinity; His offers of forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, heaven, everlasting joy and fulfillment in relationship with Him. And just think, this amazing Jesus knows and loves YOU!
If you want to follow Jesus Christ, I encourage you to invite Him into your life today. Here is a suggested prayer:
Lord Jesus, I need you. I have made mistakes in my life and I am sorry. Thank You that You love me and died for my sins. Please come into my life. Thank You, Jesus. Fill me now with the Holy Spirit, and help me to follow You. Amen.
Note: Please let me know (click here) if you prayed this prayer. Thanks!