THE GRADUATION
By: Kristen L. McNulty
This devotional was aired on the Making A Difference Christian Radio Show. If you would like to use the entire devotional or any one part, you must e-mail the author at kristen@chimfm.com to ask permission. She will reply to all requests within twenty four hours. Thank you for your consideration.
From the day you first walk down the hallways of your high school, there is one day that every student really looks forward to: graduation day. After working hard for the next four to five years, the day finally arrives. Your parents stand by the side of the stage proudly waiting to take a picture of you receiving your diploma and after they find out that you won a scholarship they are ecstatic. In fact they are so proud, you doubt if you'll have any trouble borrowing the car from your father during the next couple of weeks. After the ceremony, you head out to celebrate with family and friends and you think back over the past couple of years and you think, "All that hard work finally paid off." You get accepted into a prestigious university and you head off to study there in September. You work really hard and after four years, you graduate with honors. Your parents are proud of you throughout your whole university experience, but this night makes them especially proud because they know how hard you worked for this. You accept your diploma that night and you feel great. A week later you get a job working for a large company and once you receive your first large paycheck you are glad that all that hard work paid off. The point of this story: Just like we work so hard through high school and university in the vision of that one goal: graduation, in the Christian life we should work hard in the vision of one goal: heaven. I am by no means implying that we must "earn" our way to heaven, in fact the Bible says God saves us only when we believe "God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God." I am implying though, that when we get to heaven we'd probably like to look back over our life and be proud of how hard we worked instead of regretting the choices we made. And just like our parents are proud when we work hard, our heavenly Father is proud when we work hard for him too. One day when we die, anyone who's a Christian is going to "graduate" into heaven. During the large banquet, there are also going to be "scholarships" handed out. The only requirement to get a scholarship is a heart that serves, and the best thing is, the number of scholarships available are unlimited. Not just the Billy Graham's are going to receive a scholarship, but we can too! Anyone who serves God will receive a crown on that day- a scholarship for our hard work. Unlike scholarships that are handed out during our graduations on earth, you don't have to be smart, talented, or popular to receive one; all you have to do is serve.
So do you want to graduate into Heaven? Do you know that you can reserve your spot at the graduation today? You see, Jesus Christ died for our sins so that one day we could spend eternity with Him. Maybe you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you would like too, I invited you to pray this prayer...
Dear Lord Jesus,
I know that I'm a sinner. I know that you died for my sins and that you rose again three days later. I know that you live today. I invite you to come into my heart and make it clean. I'd like to graduate into Heaven, and I'd like to spend eternity with you.
Lord, help me to change my ways and live a pure life, I can only do it with your help. I surrender everything to you and ask you to take all that I am.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
If you just prayed this prayer, and you've meant it with your heart. Congratulations, I can guarantee that when you die you're going to graduate into Heaven. But becoming a Christian, which now you are, doesn't just mean a ticket into Heaven, but a new life today. The Bible says that all who become Christians become new persons. I invite you to check out a good Bible believing church, and prepare to embark on an awesome journey with the only one who promises to never leave you or forsake you.
So now that you have guaranteed a graduation into Heaven, how would you like to start working on getting that scholarship? You by no means have to, but if you don't you are missing what the Christian life is all about. After all, you can go through high school just passing all your classes, or you can get nineties. The same is with heaven. You can just make it there sheepishly, or you can run through those gates and here the words "Well done thou good and faithful servant." It's all up to you.
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