The Most Important Decision You'll Ever Make
/I heard a song yesterday (one of my favorites actually), but yesterday when I listened, it literally did what the lyrics describe — It took me back to the time I met Jesus, not the time I said a prayer or was baptized, but the time I truly understood and experienced His love, grace, and forgiveness in my own life. It was a time when the complexities of Christianity became, for me, a simple reality through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
God is no longer distant to me, He’s near to me through the person of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. He saved me, redeemed me, and set me free from the bondage and burden of sin.
In this world, there are a lot of decisions vying for our immediate attention, but yesterday as God took me back through this song to the most important decision I’ve ever made, He nudged me to simply share about it with you, too. So, I’m inviting you to simply push pause in your day, stop scrolling, and give me just a few minutes to tell you about this life changing decision that requires your undivided attention.
And the song that prompted it all and literally took me back — “Take Me Back” by Meredith Andrews.
The lyrics are simple, but their meaning is quite profound, and it stirred up something my cynical and sarcastic heart needed to feel. This heavy and hurting world has a way of making us all a little callous and cold — numb and maybe even naive to the false narratives it’s insisting we believe. Sarcasm and cynicism are my go to coping mechanisms, but unfortunately they have no power against the real enemy.
Only Jesus, the son of God, sent to save us. He alone holds the authority to rescue us from the enemy. He has our back. He can’t wait to take us back.
Take me back to the day I met You
When my dead heart came alive
I was running but You came chasing
You couldn’t wait to take me back
God longs to “take me back.” He longs to “take you back,” too.
You see, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We literally, because of our sin, are separated from Him...spiritually dead. And as long as we go our own way, do our own thing, live by our own worldly standards, we stay separated from God.
But...
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” ~ 2 Peter 3:9
A price had to be paid. A way had to be made.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 6:23
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” ~ John 14:6
His great love was manifested in His amazing grace.
As I reached the chorus of the song, the tears started to flow a little more freely as I was reminded of my freedom in Christ made possible by the power of Gospel...
I’ll sing of a grace that’s still amazing
I’ll dance like a child before the King
And I’ll shout like I’ve heard it for the first time
You have come to save the lost and last
And You are the God who always takes me back
As I continued to sing, God continued to remind me of this profound truth and kept nudging me to share it with you.
Sin separates us from God, but Jesus’ death paid the penalty for our sins, and His resurrection reconciled us back to Him.
“but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God...” ~ Isaiah 59:2
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~ Romans 5:8
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” ~ 1 John 1:9
If you’ve never accepted God’s free gift of salvation through confession and repentance of your sins and trusting God’s forgiveness and righteousness to cleanse you from them and reconcile you back to Him, would you do that today?
It is the most important decision you’ll ever make.
The song ends with this reminder. After God takes us back (in this world), He takes us home (out of this world to live forever with Him). And friend, that home going could be soon, either in death or when Christ returns. We are not promised tomorrow, but we are promised that He’ll take us back as soon as we call His name...
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ~ Romans 10:13
Take me home to a place I’ll know soon
Where sin and sorrow cannot go
And all Your family, forever standing
In the glory of the God who takes us back
Oh Father, let our heart’s cry be that you would take us back. I’ll confess I wake up some mornings and think about how lovely it would be to go back to the pre-pandemic days, a seemingly simpler time. And then I’m reminded how grateful I am for the urgency you’ve put in my heart to share the gospel.
An urgency that replaces the complacency.
A compassion that replaces the cynicism.
Compelling me to...
Sing of a grace that’s still amazing
And dance like a child before the King
And shout like I’ve heard it for the first time
You have come to save the lost and last
And You are the God who always takes me back
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” ~ 2 Timothy 1:6-10