If Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, you will not wreck your family with sin. You will not commit adultery. You will not dishonor your integrity by walking out on your wedding vows. You will not abuse your family. You will not neglect to pray for them. You be very faithful to them to the deepest place in your heart. When there is a hard word needs to be spoken, you will do it prayerfully and carefully in a balanced spirit of courage, love, kindness, humility, and strength. The fruit of the Holy Spirit will be evidenced in your life--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control--if, and only if Jesus Christ is truly Lord of your life.
Lordship is a title of authority. A lord is a ruler or king. In a kingdom, there may be various levels of authority, but there can only be one at the top. Only one number-one. Luke 16:13 says, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
One test to show whether Jesus Christ is Lord of your life is to ask if there is anything that can make you disobey Christ under any circumstance? If so, that thing is your lord--not Jesus.
How do you know if you have the right Lord? Take this test:
- Of all the sins in your life, are there any sins you have not given up?
- Are there any sins you have not deeply repented of before God and asked forgiveness for?
- Are there any sins you still rationalize or justify or make excuses for or minimize?
- If you hurt someone with your sins, have you neglected until now to do your best to cover the cost of it, to pay them back, to undo their loss?
- If you sinned in front of others and set a bad example, have you neglected or refused until now to confess it and take responsibility and accept the consequences with courage and integrity?
If this test sounds hard, ask yourself how sincere and committed you are to having Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. Jesus says in Revelations 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.” Are you going to let Jesus in, or are you going to eat without Him and throw your table scraps out the door to pacify him? Do you regard Jesus as your dog or as your God? Are you going to throw Him a bone, or are you going to give Him your life?
The buck stops here
It is tragic to see the number of people making tremendous sacrifices for God but never willing to trust and obey. In Malachi 2, we find people weeping because God will not hear their prayers and accept their sacrifices. Why? Because they were dealing treacherously with the wives of their youth, and in so many ways, they were unfaithful to God. In Genesis, we find Cain angered because Able’s sacrifice was accepted but Cain’s was not, and Cain reveals the evil in his heart clearly when he kills his own brother and then mocks God with a lie afterward. Then when God declares His sentence upon Cain, he cries out that it is too much. I Samuel 15:22 says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”
With our obedience, we declare who our Lord is, whether it is Satan or God. If we are slaves to our flesh, and our flesh becomes our puppet strings, who do you think is pulling those strings? We are either a part of the kingdom of God or we are a part of the kingdom of Satan. Who is your lord?
Now, you will make a decision. Jesus calls and asks you, “Will you turn away from your sin now and trust me as your Lord and Savior?” He never asks us if we will do it later. What He wants to know is whether, at this moment, you will declare Jesus as Lord of your life or whether you will declare Satan lord of your life. There are really only two choices and you must choose one. If you walk away without making Jesus Lord, by default, Satan will be your lord. If you make Satan lord of your life now, it won’t increase your chances of coming to Jesus for salvation later. It will make them far worse.
If the Holy Spirit calls to you and you refuse, then when will you ever encounter a time in your life where you will more likely receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and be saved? This is not a decision any of us can afford to delay.
God has made the way for us to come to Christ. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. He paid a heavy price so we could be forgiven. He provided people to share with us and pray for us, and he sent his Holy Spirit to call us and draw us to him. If we do not receive Him as Lord and Savior, we will be totally without excuse. It will be a shame if we would rather go to hell than receive someone who loves us this much and made this much of a sacrifice for us.
We need to choose this day and every day who will be our Lord and give our day and our lives to the one who gave us our lives in the first place. We are honor bound to use the blessings of God given to us to bless Him and those He loves.
Make Jesus first place in your life now so you won’t ever run out of time.
Commandment 1: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
Recommended Reading:
The God Chasers- "My Soul Follows Hard After Thee
My Utmost for His Highest
Memory Aid: God is number 1.
