“Jenny,” said her teacher, “do you think you are getting any stronger?”
“No, Miss Smith, I’m getting weaker all the time. Mama is afraid I won’t grow up to be a woman.” Her teacher thought the same as she looked into her pale face and felt her thin hand in hers. She asked,
“What do you think, Jenny?”
“I think Mama is right.”
“And are you afraid to die, dear?”
“No, teacher; that is, not very much. Mama says I’ll go to heaven if I’m good.”
“And are you good, dear?”
“Not very — not as good as I ought to be.”
“Jenny, how good do you think you will have to be for God to say, ‘Now you are good enough to please Me’?”
“Oh, very good I should think. Completely good?”
“Did you ever know of anyone completely good?”
“No, teacher; only Jesus.”
“Then you see, dear, you would have to be as good as Jesus. Will you ever be that good, do you think?”
“Oh no, Miss Smith. I know I can never be that good.”
“Then don’t you see, my child, you can never be good enough to please God, and so you can never get to heaven in your way. Now listen to God’s way. He does not say, ‘Be good.’ He knows we can’t, but He tells us to look at the cross. Who died there?”
“Jesus.”
“For His own badness? No,
for yours.
“When you think of Jesus hanging on the cross, say to yourself, ‘He hung there, being punished for all my sins.’ So now God can say, ‘Your sins are paid for. I want you to know that and to be happy.’”
Are you trying to be saved in Jenny’s way, that is, by what you can do? If so, stop and take God’s way, that is, believe what Jesus has done for you. “Jesus did it all,” for all who trust in Him. After we trust in Him, we can prove we love Him by doing what He tells us to do.
Messages of God’s Love 6/23/2024