I'm a sinner. There are sins that I struggle with and there are sins that I'm not ready to give up yet; even if I tried, I'm going to slip up. Does that mean that I won't be able to enter the Kingdom of God? I'm perceiving these verses as God expecting us to be perfect; to follow all of his commands, all of the time. I can't do that. Very discouraging.
MATTHEW
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching.
LUKE
23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
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Thank you. I will admit that I depend too much on the people in my life and I'm often left disappointed. I think I also may set my expectations way too high. Either way, it depresses me and I want to blame God because I feel like if he loved me, I wouldn't feel let down so much.
You know, I used to read the words that Jesus said from the cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And I would think, what hope do any of us have because God forsook His only begotten Son who was without sin and innocent? I don't see it that way anymore. I see that Jesus was forsaken by God as part of paying the full measure for sin not only in dying but also in human suffering. It means He was forsaken by God so that I will never be forsaken by God once I trusted Him as my Savior. So those feelings of being forsaken and abandoned by God are feelings that come from us, or are thoughts and lies that Satan tries to persuade and tempt us to believe, and are not from the Holy Spirit.
Amen Amanda - Excellent word. Praise God - He is faithful. Holy, Holy, Holy is our Lord God almighty.
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