Why does 'asking Jesus into your heart' work for some and not others?

Question

15 years of trying for me and it never happened, but for some it seems to happen first time. What gives?

This question is inspired by another: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070914205025AAwdlVm&r=w#Q5cpWWa_VDffDVTQbwwBlQbmlT2AdVzrFu__1PnNLIVAnPfK3H7H

I did truly mean it for most of those 15 years, but I can never truly mean it again, because I am unable to get around the fact of 15 years of no response. My capacity for faith has diminished in direct proportion to the lack of response, which is reasonable and to be expected.

So what could work now that will be different to my fairly well proven expectations?

tebone0315: Everyone refuses to give up their (subjectively) 'sinful' lives. Stop being so sanctimonious.

words for the birds: Nothing happened at all. I did not gain a relationship with Jesus.

It may be hard for many of the christians to understand but for those 15 years I did not sit on my behind and wait for my life to miraculously changed. I followed the doctrine and the advice of my vicar and other church leaders. I questioned those who appeared to have a connection with something intangible that others thought made them 'good christians'. I searched, I prayed, I tried. There was nothing more I could have done. Nothing happened. I did not even find self-improvement or any kind of enlightenment in the search.

Answer 1

It can be answered simply by referring to John, chapter 6, verse 44. If ya ain't being drawn to God yet - you ain't being drawn or "called" by Him ... YET !!! Each in their own turn and time.

P.S. "Lap Top" my brother in-law is a Christian ... and he is a nuclear physicist too - a professor with a photo-graphic memory ... and you have ??? - hmmmmmm !!!!

Answer 2

My frustration lies with watching shows about near death experiences... people who claim to see God/Jesus and then instantly their lives change (ie... from atheist to preacher)... or what about people who just one time, and one instance only... ask God to come into their lives and they either see some bright light, voice, whatever and boom! They are never the same? You can see thousands of these stories on You Tube like Sid Roth's it's supernatural. Not all those people are liars.... so again, why does God seem to be vacant for years for some who have prayed and prayed? and don't go quoting about how they must be bigger sinners or whatever.... we are all human and I don't think you can take a breath without sinning.... I believe I have repented enough in my life... prayed every day.... but still feel like 'why don't I dream of God? have a vision? hear a voice? -

Answer 3

It always amazes me the amount of people who will take it upon themselves to judge if someone truly believed or meant something or not. There ARE people out there who did the things you are supposed to do...TRULY believed, accepted Jesus as their savior, followed the teachings and everything ...and still they never felt the connection. This is why many people lose faith and strangely, after wards is when many of them truly find peace.

Answer 4

I hope this helps.

ATTITUDE can make the difference between a positive or a negative impact.

ASSURANCE is the awareness of belonging to Christ and having complete confidence in Him.

Are you DOUBTING your conversion? A Christian is a person who has trusted in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. A person who lacks this experience cannot possibly be certain about eternal life. Salvation is not based on our own performance, but on our relationship to Jesus Christ. Confident Christians say, "For I know whom I have believed, and am persauaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1:12, KJV).

Without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we cannot expect any real solutions in our search to be restored to fellowship with God.

Are you trusting your feelings rather than God's Word? Some people expect a sustained, emotional elation, and when this is missing or lags, doubts come. Our eternal relationship to God cannot be based only on emotion. We must rest on facts based on the Word of God. We are to commit ourselves to the finished work of Christ on the Cross. Having trusted Him, we continue this relationship confident that "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6, KJV).

Sin and disobedience in the life of the Christian will result in ambivalence and uncertainty. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8, KJV). Sin must be acknowledged and confessed in order to maintain unbroken fellowship.

The Christian who does not nurture his life in the Word of God, prayer, fellowship, and witness will dry up, opening the way to uncertainty and doubts. The biblical admonition to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18, KJV), is not just an idle phrase. WE GROW OR WE DIE!!!

Answer 5

*WHAT* never happened for you??? Were you expecting to feel a sudden overwhelming sunburst from Heaven or something? Salvation rarely happens like that. Although the actual change from lost to saved takes only a moment, for most people the *perception* of that change is very, very gradual, even within themselves. If you know you're sinful and you're sorry for it, if you ask Jesus sincerely and humbly to forgive you and be your Lord and Savior, and if you believe in Him as best you can, it happens. Every time. Jesus never fails, and He never, NEVER refuses a sincere prayer from a repentant sinner. In fact, He Himself said, "...him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
God bless you!

Answer 6

"Asking Jesus into your heart" or just a cheap easy belief-ism does not "work" period for the simple reason that it is not the way unto salvation.
John the Baptist's message to everyone was "Repent." Jesus's first recorded public words were "Repent and believe the gospel."

Repent means turning away or changing your mind. It signifies giving up your sinful lifestyle and turning towards a life of obedience of God's commands.

Believing is this. God gives you a genuine free gift of faith or the trust you have on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you.

The Gospel is this. Even though we broke God's laws and offended the Holy Righteous God, God sent his Son. Jesus lived a righteous life fulfilling the law. He then died on the cross when he bore all of your sins and God crushed Him...We broke the law; Jesus paid the punishment. Then Jesus rose from death defeating it and being vindicated by being risen and ascended to heaven.
Now if we repent and put our trust in Jesus for our salvation, then God wipes away all your sins by imputing your sins to Jesus's account for Him to pay, and God imputes Jesus's righteousness for you to enter Heaven.

Read Ezekiel 36 where God promises to cleanse you from your filthiness and turn your hardened heart of stone into a heart that can react to stimuli, a heart of flesh. Meditate on your sins and meditate on what Jesus did on the cross for you, and let it break your heart, then cry out to God to save you from the justice and wrath of God, for we deserve Hell, but God grants us grace if we repent and trust in Him.

Answer 7

There are a few options in a case such as yours....
1. Either you didn't really mean it... no offense intended
2. OR Jesus is in your heart, but you didn't nourish the connection and do not feel it.
I have been in both of the above scenarios, and I can tell you that it takes work to have a relationship with Jesus, just like with any earthly relationship you have. You have to spend time with Him, and learn about Him in order to really feel His presence. There are days I wake up and don't feel saved. I pray about it and go from there. There are days I don't want to be saved. It is easier to cuss someone out when you forget about your divine connection to God. That doesn't change the fact that God is with me everywhere I go, in everything that I do.
Now that I have given you my honest opinion, let the thumbs-down fairies do their work.

Answer 8

I "believed" because that is what I was thought but you can believe anything.
I began to "know" when I stopped asking the Lord to come into my mess and started cleaning up the mess (you do this by doing what you know is right and not what is the popular thing to do) and the Lord knocked on my door and I begged him to let me into his house. I still have messes to clean up but the Lord is there to help me

Answer 9

Mar 4:3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:


Mar 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.


Mar 4:5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:


Mar 4:6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.


Mar 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.


Mar 4:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.


Mar 4:9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Answer 10

Mother Teresa suffered "spiritual dryness" for years. Daily praying helps. Don't lose heart. The faith journey is lifelong, takes work & focus and has its ups and downs.