Entering In
If you have made the decision that you truly do want to be born again, or if you're unsure whether you have been born again, then go to the Lord with all your heart and tell him that.
If you have difficulty with words, here’s a prayer you can use, but pray it from your heart and with all of your heart. At any point you may add your own words, and please do. Make it yours.
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Father God, I truly desire to be born again so that I can spend all eternity with you. I recognize that I live in a fallen human nature. I know that I have sinned again and again in my life. I realize that I fall far short of perfection. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” and I’m ready to admit that that includes me. I’ve been deceived, I deceive, and I have seen wickedness dwelling in me. For these reasons, you gave your Son on that cross for ME, to bear the guilt of my sin in my place.
Your Word tells me that the wages, or the results of sin, is death, not just physical death but the second death as well, which is to be lost forever. But your Word also tells me that you loved me so much that you took upon yourself the penalty of my sin, you shed your blood for ME, you gave your life for ME, while you hung on that cross my name was on your mind. Jesus, I want to confess to you my sins and ask that the blood that you shed will cover me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I so appreciate that from your love for me you sacrificed yourself on that cross to pay the sin-debt for me personally, and I say like the thief on the cross next to you, “Lord, please remember me.”
Lord Jesus, I am ready to give up to you complete authority and control over my life. I trust you to begin that work in me, of making me all that you planned for me to be. Show me your plan and purpose for my life, and I ask for wisdom and strength to follow you all the days of my life.
Purchase this vessel, Lord Jesus, I hand to you the keys to every nook and cranny within me, I am all yours. Bring me into the New Covenant that you established in your sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection. Write my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Lord, I stand ready to do whatever you direct me to, for the rest of my life.
Summary
It's only for those who have recognized their need
" I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
Luke 5:32
"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen..."
1 Corinthians 1:26-28
It's only for the willing
"Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
Matthew 19:21-23
" Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
1 John 2:15-17
The need - our fallen human nature
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…"
Jeremiah 17:9
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."
1 John 1:8-10
"Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, 'If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.' But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.' And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.'"
Luke 23:39-43
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23
What it cost God
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
John 3:16-17
"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
Matthew 26:28
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence..."
Ephesians 1:7-8
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:13-14
"…how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Hebrews 9:14
"…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
1 Peter 1:18-19
The transformation
"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
2nd Corinthians 3:18
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."
Romans 12:2
Where your treasure is
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 6:19-21
"For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
Matthew 16:26
"His lord said to him, `Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'"
Matthew 25:21
Heaven: your name must be written in the Book of Life
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Revelation 21:27