Have you ever found it hard to believe that God loves you despite your faults?
You’re in good company. Church planter Alex Early discusses the importance of accepting how much God loves us despite our shortcomings.
As Christians, it’s easy to get down on ourselves. We are aware of our own failures, weakness, faults, and shortcomings, and the many ways we still hold on to our pride. We know when we’re faking it.
“We show up to church and we just act like everything is okay when in reality we’ve got all of our issues, all of our junk that we don’t want anyone else to know about.”
It makes life difficult when we carry around the weight of our darkest unseen thoughts and emotions. We begin to believe the lie that we are so sinful not even God will accept us.
“So when we know how bad we are, it is awfully hard to actually think ‘Okay, not even my best friend knows how bad I am and I know God knows this about me, how can God feel this way about me?’”
We start to believe the lie that God can’t really love us despite our failures. According to Alex, we have to dethrone our opinion of ourselves, and put God and His word on the throne. We have to learn to accept what the Word of God has to say about how deeply God loves and accepts us despite our sin.
“God’s Word is the authoritative word. God’s Word says I’m loved, forgiven, and free, so I’m going to yield my mind and my own belief system about myself to my Creator and what He has to say.”
Even though it might not be easy to believe we could be loved despite our current condition, we have to trust God’s Word and His opinion of us over our own opinion. God already loves and accepts us as His children. It’s our turn to receive and embrace the free gift of our new identity.
For more on God’s love for us, read Alex’s book, .
Key Scriptures: Luke 15:20
Featured Songs: Light it Up by Toby Mac; Grace Wins by Matthew West; Here I Am by Jeremy Camp
