Can You go To heaven and have God's blessing in this life?
The Bible teaches a loving yet just God who wants all to come to know him, and the Good News is that we can know Him, but first, the bad news.THE BAD NEWS
Our lives are messed up. We have problems, guilt, addictions, loneliness, aimless lives and inner emptiness. Whatever we do to fix our lives we stay messed up or get worse. There is something in us that destroys the good people we want to be. Some people call it sin, evil, or human nature, but whatever you call it this something keeps us from God and the life He wants to give us (I’ll just refer to it here as sin). God is holy and must judge sin. If He overlooked sin He would be guilty by association and no better than we are.
THE GOOD NEWS
God loves you and He wants to deliver you from the life of defeat, failure, and future judgment, Jesus said, “I have come so they may have life and have it abundantly,” (John 10:10 NIV). But that bad something inside us is keeping us from the life God wants to give us. So, God became our solution, as Jesus explained it when he said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV). This is a promise that if we believe we have that abundant life.
BUT WHAT DO WE NEED TO BELIEVE?
We must believe that Jesus paid for our sins for us, the Bible says, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;" (1 Peter 3:18 NASB)
God accounts your sin as having been put on His lovely Son when he died on the cross; this could only happen because Jesus lived a pure and beautiful life without sin of his own to pay for, therefore, he was the only one qualified to pay for the sins of another. As God, he was able to die for all mankind. The resurrection proves that Jesus' act of sacrifice on our behalf satisfies the justice of God and overcomes the sin that destroys us.
YOUR PART
No one is good enough for God and the life He offers. God takes you as you are now, messed up, for the Bible says, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8 NLT).
God does not force Himself on you. He gives you a choice to accept his offer of forgiveness and a new life or not. "But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,"(John 1:12 HCSB).
God offers you a new life, and He gives it freely because Jesus paid the price. He only asks that you believe in him, you can express this in a prayer. Tell God that you admit you are a sinner and need to be saved from the sins that have messed up your life. Tell God that you believe His promise to save you.
If you are uncomfortable praying then here is an example of what you might say to God. "God, my sins have messed up my life and I know I deserve punishment. I know Jesus paid for my sins on the cross and he rose from the tomb to prove that judgment is paid for. I need the life you offer. I turn away from my sins and receive Your free gift of eternal life. From now on I will leave my selfish life behind and will obey you as my Lord, and I will live a life that says, Thank You."
Do not get confused because saying words in a prayer does not fix or save you but believing in Jesus' death to pay for your sins does, the prayer is just an expression of that faith.
The gift of new life He offers is a life of service and gratitude to Him. Find a community of others who trust Jesus as Savior and work together with them to serve God and those He loves.
