It requires hard work and dedication to build and maintain any good relationship. Our most important relationship for this life and for eternity, is our relationship with Jesus. The quality and reality of our relationship with Jesus, will determine whether we spend eternity in heaven with Him, or away from Him in hell.
Jesus warned:“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus was not talking about unbelievers, He was talking about believers who were practicing lawlessness, sinning. Even though they were casting out demons, performing miracles in the name of Jesus, they were practicing sin, and therefor Jesus would deny them, reject them.
Disobedience to Jesus and sin separate us from Him. Jesus said: “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” John 14:21,23,24.
The commandments of Jesus are His words, the words that He spoke as also recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. By obeying His commandments we prove that we love Jesus and He promised to disclose Himself to those who obey His words. He promised His Holy Spirit to come and dwell in the one who loves and obeys Him. He will lead and guide them in all things and will be with them for eternity.
Jesus will never leave us, nor forsake us. He will always be with us, but if we sin and disobey Him, we go away from Him. Our sin separates us from Him.
We need to seek Jesus, spend time in prayer with Him, meditate on His words, always have Jesus on our mind. Worldly hobbies, friends, things of the world, sports, TV, entertainment, movies, video games, the lust of the flesh, will draw us away from Jesus.
We need to decide what is more important to us, Jesus or other things. The quality of our relationship with Jesus depends on us. If we are not serious and do not love Him above all things, we are not worthy of Him, and He will deny us. Spending time with Christian friends, fellowship with other believers, attending church, Bible study and reading Christian books, listening to Christian music, all of that, is not fellowship with Jesus. Those things do not build our relationship with Jesus. It is the time that we spend with Him, doing the things that He tells us to do, that keeps us in communion with Him.
Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:27,28. We need to be listening, hearing and following Jesus.
Each of us must work out and build our own relationship with Jesus. Nobody else can do it for us. We must keep it alive, vibrant, real, all the time, until the end. We must not allow our relationship with Jesus to slip. It must get stronger, more intimate, lasting until the very end. Only those who endure and stay faithful until the end will enter the kingdom of heaven.
If you have slipped or were not serious enough, repent, go back to Jesus, get serious and fix your relationship with Jesus, and keep it right. Do not wait until you die and it is too late. Today is the day of salvation. Seek Jesus today, while He still may be found. Tomorrow may be for ever too late.
May Jesus bless you.
finalcall07 