Reasons

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

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Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

When you were a child did you think like I did? Did you believe God was just looking for a reason to send you to hell? For some reason that is what I thought. So did my sister and brother. I am not sure where we got that idea, because our parents never taught us that. I suppose it came from us being told that sin was wrong and sinners don’t go to heaven. Our young minds didn’t yet understand the difference between the mistakes and slip ups we all make on a daily basis, and willful sinning.

When we were young the world was very different than it is today. Mom would take us shopping with her and she wasn’t afraid to let us out of her sight. Consequently, we had to stay in the store with her, but we didn’t have to stay right next to her. While we were having fun together mom would sometimes go to another part of the store. When we would look up and realize she wasn’t there we would go into a panic, looking for her as fast as we could. We were sure the rapture had happened and we had been left behind. After all, we didn’t always obey perfectly, or maybe we had gotten mad and thrown a little hissy fit. One thing was sure. We knew we hadn’t been perfect, so now we had probably missed the rapture and were going to hell. It was always such a relief when we would turn down one aisle and there she was.

Now that we are older we understand that God isn’t looking for excuses to send us to hell. The truth is He would not have to look very far with any of us, so no one would make it to heaven.

Actually, God is looking for any way He can find to take us to heaven.

My brother was talking last night about how often people quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not parish but have everlasting life.” However, they usually don’t go on to quote John 3:17, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.” That scripture tells us that God does not want to send anyone to hell.

My father used to tell us that punishment is God’s strange work. In other words, it is not what He wants to do, but what He as our Father has to do to keep us on the path to heaven.

God is not looking for perfection from us, because if so, no one would make it. Rather, He is looking for a heart that is looking for Him. The instant a person gives their heart to God they have started their journey. If they were to die immediately, even though they hadn’t had time to make any changes in their life, they would still be saved.

The problem there is that many people want to live a sinful life and at the last moment apologize to God and go to heaven. That absolutely does not work. Galatians 6:7 says, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” You cannot purposely live a sinful life and then expect to fool God into believing you are sorry. God sees into you heart and knows the truth.

God is looking for any chance He can find to save you, but there is a point beyond which He cannot and will not go. He is constantly forgiving the sins we are committing because we are imperfect humans. However, willful sin requires true heart felt repentance.

When Lucifer and a third of the angels purposely sinned against God, He threw them out of heaven and declared He would never allow sin into heaven again. If sin was allowed in heaven, we would all have to be struggling with it all through eternity, God says once we get to heaven the fight will be over. There will be no sin to tempt us ever again.

While we are still here on earth, we can rest assured that God really wants to save us, and He will if He can. But understand that even though God says no one can take our salvation away from us, we can walk away from it of our own free will.

God’s goal is to save us, but don’t let that cause you to become careless and think we can get away with sin.

My father always said, “If I draw a line and tell you not to step across it, I don’t expect you to stand with your toes on the line.” What he meant was if we get as close to crossing the line as we can, in our hearts it is the same as if we had physically crossed the line. God says if we commit sin in our heart, then we have sinned. All sin starts in our heart.

So, don’t be afraid that God is looking for a reason to send you to hell, But, neither can we push as far as we can and think we will get away with it. It doesn’t work that way.

Think about it.