“Merlin, if I don’t learn to praise the Lord as you teach, will I not be able to go heaven?” What an incredible question for anyone to ask, but I hear it often. It’s sad to me that people are being taught such false ideas about God that they live in doubt and fear.

Some people feel that God is watching for any excuse to cast them into Hell. Exactly the opposite is true! He wants us to be with Him for eternity. That’s why He created us and was willing to die for our sins.

Satan is the one who is doing his best to con­vince us that God has nothing better to do than punish us. He doesn’t want us to accept God’s loving offer of grace. But through faith in Jesus, God has made it possible for anyone to enter Heaven.

Some people think they could go to Hell for nearly any offense. As a result, they suffer end­lessly. They don’t realize that one of Satan’s chief weapons is torment and doubt. He wants us to meditate on our failures in order to keep us from concentrating on God’s goodness. If you have been burdened with doubts, I urge you to put all your confidence in Jesus as your Savior. Because of Jesus, God forgives all our sins, and crowns us with His lovingkindness and tender mercies (see Psalm 103:3,4).

The New Testament message of God’s grace is so glorious that some find it almost impossible to believe. It boils down to one simple message: We are given the free gift of eternal life because of our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That is the Good News that Jesus came to give us! It’s the news that Satan hates, and he is dedicating all his efforts to prevent our understanding of God’s wonderful plan. He knows that when we joyfully trust Jesus to give us eternal life, we will be so excited about this Good News that we will want to share it with everyone.

Yes, if we never understand the benefits of always praising the Lord, we will still go to Heaven if we believe that Jesus is our Savior. We may not always please God, but we always want Him to help us. We confess our weakness to Him and tell Him over and over how thankful we are for His grace and forgiveness. We see ourselves as Paul did: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (I Timothy 1:15). When we recognize our sins, we repent, do what we can to make restitution, and then rejoice in Christ Jesus.

Many people live in fear of God rather than accepting His love for us. But when we under­stand all He has done for us we will want to follow Him. Once we become fully convinced of His grace, we then become dedicated to loving and serving Him.

For by His grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

(Reprint from July 1996)