Jesus, how can a person be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born (John 3:4)! Help me do what Nicodemus did: “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born (John 3:4)!” When I don’t understand something or it doesn’t seem right to me, help me ask You questions. Help me be willing to move on with my studies on those things I do understand. Then when You feel I am ready for the answer, explain it through these studies, the Bible, or directly from You.

Jesus, sometimes I run into spiritual, Biblical concepts that I totally don’t understand. When I get exposed to thing like being born again, the impossibility of the situation scares me and confuses me. As with Nicodemus, he suspected that going in for a second term in his mother’s womb wasn’t the answer. Help me know that You will show me another way of accomplishing this. Help me trust You with these difficult concepts.

Teach me that even if I could go back and get born again as a human baby. All I would end up with was me still being a citizen of the nation or kingdom where I was born and a member of the same human family. It wouldn’t change my citizenship, my humanity, or family ties. Let it be obvious to me that what You are talking about is going to be something different than a natural birth.

Jesus, Your answer to Nicodemus was: I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). Help me see that, that means I have to be born in the water of my mother’s womb as a human before I can qualify to be born again. Then show me that this next birth is going to be a spiritual birth. Teach me what that means so I can experience being born again.

Jesus, if God is going to be my Father, then I am going to have to be born in the spirit realm; because, God is a Spirit. Since I only understand human bodies, it is difficult for me to realize that I am an eternal being myself. I, as an eternal being, live in a body; but, when that body dies and decays, that doesn’t have any effect on me being able to continue to exist. When You talked about people dying, You frequently said they were sleeping. Help me understand that dying isn’t ceasing to exist, it is being separated from my body. I, as an eternal being, will continue to live on somewhere else. That continuing to live somewhere else is the thing that needs to concern me.

Jesus, teach me that just because bodies only last for a short period of time doesn’t mean that people do. There have been times when I doubted that there was life after death; there were other times when it was something I didn’t spent much time thinking about. Help me allow God to use my struggles with a life-problem to help me start considering an eternally important issue. Teach me that if I am going to spend eternity with God, I will have to join His family and Kingdom now; I will NOT be able to make that decision after I die.

Jesus, help me understand that being born again isn’t just an after-life issue. Show me that a lot of tremendous benefits come from me making that decision now. My life is bringing me a lot of suffering that You can and will help me with just as soon as I am born into Your family. And the reason for that is because, that will make me a citizen of God’s Kingdom. Show me that You are currently trying to do some special things for me now so I will want to spend eternity with You later.

Jesus, explain to me what all this discussion about new birth and Kingdom citizens have to do with my issue with drugs? Help me understand that I won’t be able to get help with my problems until my relationship with my heavenly Father has been ESTABLISHED; and, You were trying to explain this to Nicodemus and to me.

Jesus, I understand that if I move into a new house and forget to call the electric company and ESTABLISH an account with them, electricity will not be available to me. I won’t get service even though it IS available out at the street where I live. Since my house wouldn’t be connected to the electric service because I didn’t establish a relationship with them, it would be my fault I didn’t have electricity.

Show me that this is what You are talking to me about here. I MUST be born again in order to ESTABLISH a relationship with God and Him become MY heavenly Father. The great provisions of God are available to me; but, I am still one of people who isn’t connected to You THROUGH being born again.

Jesus, if I have a son, I will allow him to come into my house and eat my food, use one of my bedrooms, and move freely through my house. But, if some strange boy came in and tried to take advantage of these privileges, I would be upset. There would be no relationship ESTABLISHED and he would be a stranger to me; he would be trespassing. But, if that strange boy did what it took to build a relationship with me and I finally adopted him into my family, he would gain all the rights and privileges of a son. Help me totally understand this principle.