Trusting in Jesus for salvation is the most important decision we can ever make in life. While it is true that God does all the work in wooing us to Himself and opening our blind eyes to just how sinful we really are, we still have a responsibility to accept His free gift of salvation and acknowledge Him as Savior. Trying to unravel the mystery between God’s absolute sovereignty in our salvation with our own personal responsibility is something we will never fully understand but in the economy of God both are clearly taught in Scripture.
But trusting God for salvation is just the beginning of our lifelong journey with Christ. The challenge for the Christian is to learn to totally trust Jesus for the rest of our journey in life. For many Christians this can be an exciting lifelong adventure where leaning on Christ becomes the most enjoyable part of our lives. Sadly, for many other Christians trusting in Jesus for direction and guidance in life is something that is fraught with difficulty and many ups and downs. Granted all of us struggle to some degree in learning to lean on Jesus but for many believers the challenge to trust in the Lord becomes an exercise in refusing to totally submit to His will and leading. As a result, for these Christians peace and joy are often forfeited at the altar of self-will and choosing to not let Jesus be Lord of our lives.
Pastor David Platt shared the following statement that seems to capture this strange phenomenon that many Christians struggle with when he said: “If you can trust God to save you for eternity, you can trust him to lead you for a lifetime.”1 I have learned as I have grown in my walk with Jesus that If He can forgive me of a lifetime of sins and change my eternal destiny from hell to heaven, then He can certainly help me now to live a victorious life here on earth.
God has equipped us with all the things we need to learn the secret of living a life of total contentment and total commitment to Christ. First, He has given us His Holy Spirit to live inside of us. And it’s the Holy Spirit that guides, teaches, comforts, and supplies us with the power to live a joyous Christian life. Second, God has given us the Holy Scriptures to be our roadmap giving us all the absolute truths we need to realize the great value in trusting in Jesus. And third, the wonderful privilege of prayer allows us to commune with, seek wisdom and guidance from, and to constantly stay connected with our Lord.
So, if I can sum up the why and the how to trust Jesus on this journey called life it would be as follows:
Trusting in Jesus will help us live the most enjoyable life possible as we learn to glorify Him in everything we do, seek to spread the only message that has an eternal impact on lives, and allow our souls to experience total rest in a world that is totally restless.
And the how is simple. Turn the keys of your life over to the leading of the Holy Spirit, hide God’s Word in your heart, and pray to the Lord, who is the only one, who can either change your circumstances, or change how you react to them.
Salvation is just the beginning of trusting in Jesus, while spending the rest of our lives here on planet earth is not only training grounds for eternity but time to begin to know the one who we will be spending forever in His intimate company!
1 David Platt Quote: “If you can trust God to save you for eternity, you can trust him to lead you for a lifetime.” (quotefancy.com)