We have all had the worst day ever. Or even the worst season of your life. Some may think the worst season of your life was the time before your salvation. You know, those days when you lived recklessly, smoked, drank, etc. So let me ask you this, is there a God? And would his affection for you start the moment you prayed some prayer and sang a song. Does Jesus wake up to us only when we wake up to him? Can you imagine Jesus saying something like this? “Good news! He just prayed the prayer, he was really making me mad, but now I love him, now excuse me I need to go make a plan for his life and get him to stop smoking weed.”  Really? That’s God?

What if he was there all along, loving you from the start, knowing the hairs on your heard and the pain in your heart? Jesus is and always has been the initiator of love. We need to get one thing straight, compared to God, everyday is our worst day, and we have never been nor ever will be as good as God is. We are new nature saints, not saved sinners who need to buckle down and be better. Now I’m about to introduce the 5 What if’s that could change the way you see God.

• What If God said it is okay to be who we are at this moment, with all our junk and not have to pretend about how close we are to God, how much we pray, how many bible verses we can recite?
• What if we knew that God will never use the word punish in relation to our performance .
• What if we knew that if and when we mess up God will never get back at us.
• What if we knew that the basis of our friendship with God was not based on how little we sin but on how much we let God love us?
• What if we knew that there are no levels of sin? No higher commendation for higher severity of sin. Just grace.

If you don’t agree with these 5 what if’s and you’ve “got it covered”. Congrats, but I’m going to join the other 99.9% of us who can’t live up to unrealistic rules and laws, but can live in the new nature of grace.

We are so afraid of this because we actually believe that Gods favor for us is related to our commitment and performance. But it’s not! That’s what makes the gospel the Good news. That we can be who we are and not have to hide in the prison of shame. Isaiah 53:5 “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” That’s it! The punishment that brought us peace was on him, not for us to buckle down and get serious about sin, the fight is over, and God has won. Trust in the hard work that Jesus did at the cross is the only solution to the shame we have kept for so long. Think about this statement, the world will not know God because you force bad behavior into hiding and slap on a big happy smile, the world will know God by his love expressed on you, and then through you. Make sense?

Stop focusing on how good you’re doing and start focusing on how good God already is. You are enough