The life and trials of a growing Christian - Day Eighty Four

Why did I decide to follow Christ? I decided to follow Him because I couldn't deny Him. I couldn't run from Him any more. The Son of the living God has been after me through the Holy Spirit for as long as I can remember. I've done everything I could to ignore Him, deny Him, and blaspheme Him yet He persisted. I couldn't run anymore, I couldn't screw things up too much worse and I couldn't deny Him... I just couldn't. The more He worked on me the more my conscience twisted me into knots the more I came to the conclusion that I needed Him. In every way I needed Him and still do. I thought that I was a half way decent person until  I was convicted by the law. I knew the ten commandments, and I knew that I had broken at least half of them, but I didn't know that by living out of the Grace of Jesus I was guilty of breaking the entire law. I knew that there was a heaven and hell but I just lived and acted like it didn't matter. You see, I like a whole lot of other people just assumed that after I died, I would go to heaven, just because. I didn't know that I had to submit to Jesus, not just say some prayer after a preacher but ask Him myself "please forgive me, I have sinned against God and You. You are my Lord and Savior, the Son of the Living God." I had to confess Him before men and I had to be buried in baptism for the remission of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I didn't know that my life would change forever. That it would no longer be mine for me, but mine for Him, and only mine because He has allowed it to be so. I didn't know that everyone is separated from Him until they do this. But I do now. I don't want for anybody to be in the state that I was in. Yes, I still make mistakes (just read a few of my blogs and you'll see that) and I am still a person who sins, I am still human after all, in fact, I probably see a whole lot more of my faults now than I ever did before. I'm a whole lot harder on myself than I've ever been, but I have a much, much higher standard to try to live up to. I have to try to be like Jesus. WOW, that's impossible! Who can do that? Nobody, but I will die trying.