Thursday, November 04, 2010

My Path to Salvation

Being a toddler in my walk with Christ, I ponder about my new path in life. Prior to asking Jesus into my heart and trusting Him for my salvation, I couldn’t truly remember if I had actually said the words to have Jesus live within me. I thought and thought and did my best to recall, but to no avail. I simply did not know. It took the death of my wife to finally take action toward being saved. I am disappointed no one had ever asked me or witnessed to me about the glory of being saved by Jesus. Although I must admit I had Jehovah Witness’ regularly visit my home. But they didn’t ask me either.

For as far back as my memory will take me, I have had a faith in God. I have always believed in God. I don’t have a clue on how I ever made that decision. I’m glad I did. Even though I was a sinner, God helped me through some trials and tribulations I encountered. But as soon as the trouble was over, God seemed to disappear. I am grateful God is patient. It took me a very long time, but is active in my life today.

Recently, I was thinking about my walk with God in general. I was attempting to come to grips about how I should let God and Jesus control my life. I found myself remembering a long forgotten Robert Frost poem, “The Road not Taken.” I could still remember the last two or three lines. “The road diverged in a yellow wood and, I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference.” There are several interpretations of those lines. As I reflected on the simple beauty of those words, they made me think of my walk with the Lord. To me the more traveled road could represent those of the world and unsaved. The other road is those who walk with our Savior and are saved.

I do know that I didn’t have to give up anything to become saved. In fact, I trusted Jesus that I was now saved. I took the grace of salvation and asked Jesus into my heart. I didn’t have to bribe, plead or wish God would save me. He gave me salvation freely. I know God wants to control my life, but I have to allow Him to do that. Without me allowing Him to control my life, God won’t. I can’t speak for anyone else, but allowing God to control my life is so much better than me doing it. The more I allow God into my life, the better it gets.

Each day that passes my walk with Jesus gets easier. I do my best to obey God’s commands, but I don’t always succeed. I still sin, though my sins are of a different kind since being saved. I ask forgiveness on a regular basis. The toughest command for me to obey is sharing the “Good News.” There are so many lost people in the world today. I want to do my part in bringing souls to Christ. I might just be the only opportunity for someone to become saved. I do not want God to ever ask me, “Why didn’t you share the Gospel with that person?” Do you?


Robert Dodson
November 5, 2010