WHAT RELIGION MADE ME

As I look back through the years before I gave my life to Christ, I recall the many, many times that I went searching for God, and yet in my journey to find Him in all the religions and denominational struggles of who was right and who was wrong, God tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Here am I, the One that you are seeking”. I found that religion itself did nothing for me but make me empty, yet in my earnest seeking, that emptiness drove me to find that only Jesus Himself could give me the peace that I was seeking and fill the void that was in my heart. 

From my earliest years as a small child, I guess I must have attended every church that was in whatever town we might have lived in. Being young, it never entered my mind that so many people had so many opinions and views of God and how to get to Him. But I was never swayed or disappointed to the point of giving up in my quest to find the answers that I was seeking in spite of the disagreements that I encountered in the churches that I attended.

As a child, I simply sought God out of my need for love, compassion, friendship and understanding. As a youth, I recall seeking God for forgiveness in the mistakes that I was making as well as having the onset of a real need for wisdom in my life. As a young adult, my need for God drove me to peruse Him on a deeper level. I began to hunger for God, to be cleansed from the guilt of my sins, for in those days I found that no matter how small or how big my sin may have been, I began to see them as God must have and my heart grew heavier with the conviction that I was not living the life that I knew deep in my heart that I should be living. It was during those days of strong conviction and drawing, that God brought me to a personal understanding that I needed to give my life to Him and stop trying to let my religious knowledge about Him be my salvation and way to Him. I finally found out that Jesus was right; when He said in the book of John, that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no man comes to God but through Him.

For some people bear and even pass through their conviction never allowing it to draw them to God, humbling their hearts in surrender to Him. Eventually the pang of conviction goes away and with it goes the passing of the Spirit of God never to bother them again. With some people it seems to take longer for them to turn to God than it does others. Yet, for some, God knows that they will never turn to Him no matter how long He gives them.

The scripture’s tell us that each man must work out his own salvation. Working out one’s own salvation does not mean that each individual person find God in whatever religion that they choose to believe in. ….their is only One Way according to the Word of God and what Jesus Himself told us. What it does mean is that no one else can give you salvation, not even yourself. Each person must find that out for themselves as they work through their own personal convictions that God brings into their lives.

Humanity can be assured that at some point in every life, the Creator of the universe and of all mankind will walk by one day tapping them on the shoulder and say to them (in whatever kind of words or picture or experience or expression He so choose to say) “Here am I, the One that you are seeking”; and when that happens, it will be up to that person as to how they respond to God’s invitation to receive salvation.

As I look back upon those days of my own personal journey to find God, I can recall with great understanding now, how God moved in and through every situation and circumstance using everything that touched my life to show Himself to me. Religion made me empty, but turning and surrendering my life to God through the work that His Son did on the cross for me, brought me the peace that I had been seeking and the joy of knowing what His suffering was all about!

The Bible tells us that it is our sin that separates us from God, and to be restored to him, we need only to repent and turn from it.  I am reminder of two men in the scriptures that God tapped on their shoulder as well, as He dealt with them in their sin. One surrendered; the other died without ever knowing the peace and restoration that could have been his, had he humbled his heart in brokenness to God over His sin.

2 Chronicles 33 tells the story. Deprived of his liberties, separated from his evil past, without any prospect of ending his current situation and with only his days in a wretched prison, that he then found himself to be in, King Manasseh son of former King Hezekiah now was forced to give thought to his past. As he did, he began to cry for mercy and deliverance. He confessed his sins, condemned himself and humbled before God, he loathed himself as a monster of impiety and wickedness. Yet he prayed to be pardoned through the abundant mercy of the God of his Fathers. Who can tell what tortures of conscience, what pangs of grief, and fears of wrath, what agonizing remorse he endured, as he looked back on his many years of apostasy and rebellion against God; on his having led thousands into sin and perdition; and on his blood-guiltiness in the persecution of many of God's children?

He had been a wicked and vile King, yet in that prison that he had created for himself as a direct consequence of his sin, he prayed to the only One that could give him the pardon that he sought. This King like many today sought after the wrong things. He created a religion of alters and Asherah poles that left him empty. His searching for God through astrology in the stars brought only discontentment, grief and emptiness that eventually led to him being shackled and led to Babylon with a hook in his nose. Yet, it was there in those bronze shackles with a hook in his nose like a pig, that in his distress, he called out to God and humbled himself greatly before the Lord so much that the scripture says that when he prayed, it moved God to compassion.

While Manasseh had a change of heart and repented of his sins, his son Amon did not; and as did many of the kings that ruled over Jerusalem, he did even more evil than his father. Whatever warnings or convictions that God may have sent Amon's way; he never humbled himself and repented. He only ruled two short but evil years, and was soon cut off because of his sins. God had provided a warning for all men not to abuse the example of God's patience and mercy that he showed Manasseh, as an encouragement to continue in sin. But Amon refused to learn from his father’s mistakes. His life was ended in an assassination by his own circle of friends that he had trusted; his officials. May God help us to be honest with ourselves, and to think aright concerning our own character and how we live, least death fixes us in an unchangeable state as did Amon.

Seek Jesus, while He may be found....today is the day of salvation!
Loving on you,
Bren