Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
It was my junior year of high school when my school counselor came to me and asked about my ACT prep and when I planned to take the test. Even being a diligent scholar, I didn’t even know what the ACT was nor its significance. After learning that all of one’s life hinges on this test and the implications of what a good score could do for the college application process, I did what any good student would do. I waited until the last possible second of my senior year to take it.
There were three testing opportunities left. I took the first one and did well enough to coast through the rest of high school, and had no plans to take the test anymore. After sharing this information with the counselor and my parents, I was then informed that I was, in fact, wrong and that I would take the test two more times. I took it the third time and gained two more points on my score. Before the final testing opportunity, the school put on an ACT prep course. How fortunate for me to spend, not one, but two more grueling periods of time taking this test. During the introduction of the prep course, the instructor shared a system used to help testers. It was the acronym K.I.S.S., Keep It Simple Stupid. I immediately thought, “Wow! The instructor knows me by name!” Testers were to use this acronym to remind them that the answers were simple and that overthinking the answer could cause them to second-guess their answer and consequently get it wrong. Reading through Chapter 10, I find the same concept of the gospel on display.
Read Chapter 10:8-10. What does it mean to believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? You see, we are not just talking about accepting facts. We see in James 2:19 that “even the demons believe and shudder!” So, what does the resurrection mean for God’s people? It means we can’t build a resume to get into Heaven. Jesus won’t look down at a sheet of paper at the pearly gates and read, “Wow! Two mission trips in 2016, gave to the homeless, led a House Church for 3 years, adopted 47 puppies, etc. Come on in, Chief!” We needed a Savior to do what we couldn’t. It’s the personal conviction that Jesus is sovereign. We must repent from sin, trust in Jesus and His promises for salvation, and SUBMIT to Him as Lord of our lives. While the day-to-day of denying ourselves (Matthew 16:24) and pursuing God can be difficult, the concept of the Gospel is quite simple. In Mark 10:14-15, Jesus rebukes His disciples for turning children away and says, “Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” The Gospel is easy enough for children to understand. The difference between Satan and the Saints is that we don’t just believe it. We submit to it completely.
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.