If I die with just one sin in my heart that I haven't confessed, will God refuse to let me into heaven? I grew up thinking this, and the older I get the more I worry about it because I don't want to miss heaven. — L.O'D.

I'm thankful you are concerned about your eternal salvation; far too many people today go through life without ever thinking about eternity. But this is a tragic error; the Bible warns, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).

Listen: God doesn't want you to live in fear the rest of your life, wondering whether or not He is going to let you into heaven! The key is to realize that your salvation doesn't depend on you and how good you are, but on Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. If our salvation depends on us then none of us will be saved, for none of us is perfect. We should confess our sins to God—but even when we do, we have hidden sins lurking in our hearts that we don't even realize. The Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10).

That is why we need Christ, because He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. When He died on the cross, all our sins were placed on Him, and He took the penalty we deserved. He was sinless—but our sins and our guilt were transferred to Him.

If you have never done so, ask Christ to come into your life today, and trust Him alone for your salvation. Then thank Him for taking all your sins away and making you part of His family forever. The Bible says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).