Anonymous asked:
I keep being ashamed of what god thinks of me.  Help?

Jed Brewer replied:

Anon, if I had to guess, I bet you’re thinking of God as a Boss.  In other words, when you do what the Boss wants, he’s happy.  When you don’t, he’s unhappy.  Do enough good stuff, and you get promoted.  Do enough bad stuff, and you get fired.

There are a lot of people that look at God that way, and I suppose it makes sense – most relationships in life work just like that.  And, if that’s the way we relate to God, then, yeah, God probably wouldn’t be very happy with you, what with you being a great big sinner and all.

The problem here, anon, is that this isn’t how God works.  At all.

Here’s what the Bible has to say:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV)

God’s opinion towards you is Love.  Period.  Always.  No matter what.  When you’re at rock bottom in the worst of your sins?  His opinion of you is Love.  When you’re completely disinterested in him?  Love.  When you consider him an enemy?  Love.

That’s God’s heart towards you.  Where you stand with God is one of two things.  Either…

A)   You are a person who is lost and hurting, separated from God by your sins, and yet sought and desired relentlessly by a Savior who stands at your door and knocks, and offers you – today – a free gift of forgiveness, salvation, and new and eternal life.

Or.

B)   You are a sinner saved by Grace, adopted as the beloved child of the God of the Universe, a person whose sins have been paid for both fully and permanently, who has been credited all of the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself and enjoys the full favor of God for the rest of eternity.

Those are the only two options for where you stand with God.  There is no plan C. 

What this means is that the noise in your head is a lie.  This sense that God is looking down on you, barely tolerating you, and that you’re hanging by a thread, with the threat of his wrath waiting to drop any time now?  It’s simply not true.

Beloved, God adores you.  He has desired you before there was time itself.  He has sought and pursued you every day of your life, including the worst ones.  He has given up everything to have you.  He has already paid every cost, borne ever burden, and removed every obstacle so that the two of you could be together.  I know you feel a desire in your heart for a great and transcendent romance; this is a desire for God, pure and simple.  And he stands before you today, epically crazy about you.  The only thing that stands in the way of that romance is your false belief that he wouldn’t have you.

If you’ve made a decision for Christ in your life already, I’d encourage you to go find a place where you are extending God’s impossible love to other people.  That may be a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, prison chapel service, etc.  It will change your thinking – I promise.

If you haven’t made a decision to accept Jesus as your savior – to say “I do” to God – you can do that right now.  Find a quiet place just you and God, tell him this, then send me a message and we’ll work together to help you find a good church in your area.

“Jesus, I’ve done wrong things in my life.  I admit it.  I’m asking you to forgive me.  Right now, I’m claiming your death on the cross as payment for every wrong thing I’ve ever done or will do.  From now on, I want you to be in charge of my life.  I’m asking you to give me a new life that comes out of being connected with you.  Thanks that, as of right now, your spirit lives inside of me, I’m forgiven and accepted, and nothing can change that, ever.  Thanks that, when I die, I will spend forever with you in Heaven.  Amen.”