Jesus told him,  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6  NIV

You can be a good person.  You can be kind and gracious and giving.  But you can’t get to heaven without Jesus.  In order for you to experience salvation and forgiveness of your sins, you must accept Jesus Christ as your savior.  Once you accept him, God’s Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of you.  This is what helps us to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit that we talked about yesterday.

I don’t know about you, but I need a whole lot of Jesus!  A few years back a friend bought me a coffee mug that says, “I need a little coffee and a Whole lot of Jesus!”  Truer words were never spoken, my friend.  You see, without Jesus, I am not so sweet.  But with Jesus I can be kind and I can do a much better job of exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit.  While my morning coffee gets me going, Jesus keeps me going throughout the day.

Our scripture passage tells us that we need Jesus.  It tells us that He is the way.  Jesus is the way to get to heaven.  We can’t get there without Him.  Jesus is the truth.  He’s the bottom line.  He’s what should matter most to us.  We should focus on Him and not be distracted by those lies that the devil loves to throw our way.  Jesus is the life.   Our only hope for eternal life is through Jesus.  We can’t work for it or earn it, we have to accept it.  We have to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  Then we must repent and ask him to forgive us of our sins.

Let’s talk for just a minute about our sins.  Our sin separates us from God.  Not only does it separate us from God, but it prevents Him from hearing us (Isaiah 59:2)  This is not good when we are praying for some desperate need.  We need God’s forgiveness more than we need anything else.  The Bible also tells us something that is difficult for me.  It tells us that if we don’t forgive others then God is not going to forgive us (Matthew 6:15).  Ouch!  You see, that is something that I struggled with for a long time.  If someone wronged me,  I might let it go the first time, but if it happened a second or heaven forbid a third time?  And some things I considered unforgiveable the first time.  I mean, come on, there are just some things that are unforgiveable, right?  Wrong.  According to God’s word, we must forgive others.  The Bible doesn’t say that it’s a suggestion, it says that if we want God’s forgiveness, we must forgive others.  This is where I really need a whole lot of Jesus.  On my own I’m not so forgiving, but with God’s help I can forgive others.  I can be compassionate towards others.  I can be mindful of the needs of others and help out when possible.  I can do all these things through Jesus Christ because He gives me all the strength I need (Philippians 4:13).

Now the interesting thing about a relationship with Jesus is that He allows us to set the parameters of the relationship.  He allows us to determine if we have hourly contact, daily contact, weekly contact, monthly contact or no contact at all.  He allows us to determine how often we get together with him through prayer.  He allows us to determine how often we visit Him at His house.  He allows us to determine how often we listen to Him through reading his written Word.

I used to think that I just needed a little Jesus in my life.  I wanted Him not too far away in case of that 911 prayer.  I wanted Him to be quick to respond, but not get in the way.  I wanted Him to give me what I asked for without me having to give up my sinful behavior.  Well, it took me a while, but I finally realized that it didn’t work that way.  I finally realized that for me to have peace and joy in my life, I had to have Jesus.  I finally realized that the amount of peace and joy I had was directly proportional to the amount of Jesus that I had.  So, if I have a whole lot of Jesus then I have a whole lot of peace and joy.

The other great thing about Jesus is that He is only a prayer away.  If you have realized that you have stepped away from Jesus and have no Jesus in your life or that you have put Him in this very small box and only have a tiny bit of Jesus in your life, then all you have to do is call.  You can simply ask Jesus to draw closer.  You can draw nearer to Him and He will draw nearer to you (James 4:8).

Maybe you feel that you are doing a fantastic job with your life and you really don’t need Jesus.  Or perhaps you feel that you just need a tiny bit of Jesus in your life.  Maybe you feel that you only need to attend church on Easter and Christmas.  Maybe you feel that you only need to pray in an emergency.  And maybe you only feel the need to read the Bible at your bi-annual church outing.  If that is the case, remember this. There will come a time, maybe sooner or maybe later, when you need all the Jesus you can get.

My prayer for you today is that you realize the great need for Jesus in your life before it’s too late.  I pray that you don’t die or the rapture doesn’t happen before you turn to Him.  I pray that you don’t let salvation pass you by.

I know that when I don’t have coffee in the morning, I get a headache from the caffeine withdrawal.  I don’t even want to know what it would be like to not have Jesus.  I’m not even willing to experiment with that.  I encourage you to draw near to God today.  Go to Him in prayer through His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Develop a good, strong relationship with Him.  Give all your cares to Him for he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).  The only regret you will have is that you didn’t do it much sooner.

Have a great day!