Does God love me just like I am?

June 17,0214: Does God love me just like I am? Please "Share" this new Precious Prodigal Post: http://bit.ly/1jxud0K

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.”

In looking at the things we need to let go of, letting go of any known sin goes pretty high on the list. Why? When our hearts are broken and our spirits overwhelmed, we need to be able to seek and find strength in God. And if we “regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.” (Psalm 66:18)

There are two parts to letting go of sin, and the first one is the most important thing we will ever do. It begins with the fact that God loves us. Just let that profound truth sink in for a moment. The God who spoke the worlds and the galaxies into existence loves you. Nothing I’m going to write about today…or any day for that matter…makes any sense without starting out with the glorious truth that God loves us.

God doesn’t love us because we loved Him. According to Romans 5:10, we were the enemies of God. That takes us to the second truth, which is that we are all sinners. I don’t usually have a problem convincing people that we all have a sin nature. But the thing about sin is that it separated and continues to separate us from God.

We’re not sinners because we sin. We sin because it is our nature to sin. The Bible says we were “dead in trespasses and sin.” (Eph 2:1) A dead person can’t have a relationship with anyone, and there was no way for us to be reconciled to a holy God who loves us but cannot accept our sin.

That takes us to the solution. Because God loved us and our sin separated us from Him, He sent his Son to be the payment for our sin and to reconcile us to Himself. Christ didn’t come into the world to condemn us…we were already condemned. (John 3:17) He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves: to “suffer, the just for the unjust” so He could make a way for us to have a personal relationship with a holy God. (1 Peter 3:18)

If, like me, you realize you are a sinner who needs forgiveness and believe that Jesus died for your sins, you can come just as you are and receive His offer of salvation. John 1:12 says, “as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the children of God.” If you want to begin that new relationship with God by putting your faith in Christ, you might pray a prayer like the following:

Dear God: I know that I’m a sinner and my sin has separated me from You. I believe you sent Christ to be the payment for my sin and to die in my place. I want to receive Him now as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me your own child. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If you have made the decision to receive Christ, God has promised He “will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) You may have been alone on your wilderness journey up to this point. But you now have a friend that “sticks closer than a brother,” and you’re not alone anymore.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, ask yourself whether there has ever been a time in your life when you received Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? If you aren’t sure, will you make that decision today?

If you have prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior, will you send me an email at [email protected] so I can rejoice with you?