READ: John 3:1-18
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” – John 3:7
Praying everyday is not the same as being born again. When I was a child, I once asked a priest, “Sir, how can I go to Heaven?” He told me, “My son, pray ‘Hail Mary’ three times a day, and ‘Our Father’ once a day, and you will go to Heaven.” Oh, how I prayed! But, that was not the way to salvation.
A minister of God shared an experience he had when he was a teenager. He said he had been a reli- gious person, but at a point in his life he became seriously sick and died on his bed.
When he died, he saw himself going down into Hell. As he went deeper and deeper, he started protesting, “But I pray everyday, I go to church every Sunday.” Then he heard a voice telling him, “You are not born again!” Meanwhile his mother, a born-again Christian was interceding for him. Finally, when he got to a part of Hell, he saw a horriblelooking creature that lifted its hand to receive him. However, God delivered him, and he came back to life. Then, at another time, he fell sick and died again, but by then he had become born again. This time round, when he died he went up towards Heaven; and a voice told him to go back because he had not finished his work on earth. He came back to life, and became a God’s minister.
You may be as religious as this man was, but if you are not born again, you will die and go to Hell. Simply praying to God is not a substitute to being born again! Jesus says to the man who dutifully prays everyday, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).