Have you ever thought of yourself as irredeemable? Have your past transgressions left you feeling that God could never forgive you, or that he would even want to? And one last question; have you ever felt that you have no right to ask God to forgive you because you don’t deserve it?
I’ll go first…I have.
And do you know what? Those are exactly the lies that the devil wants you and me to believe. The deceiver wants us to give up on our faith and have us turn our backs on God because we believe we don’t deserve forgiveness. The evil one is highly adept at spewing lies into our hearts and convincing us that nothing, not even Jesus’s spilled blood and his loving sacrifice on the cross for our sins can make us worthy of His love.
But did you know this? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV)
Do you realize my friend that despite what your past has been like or the multitude of sins you’ve committed, there is nothing you can do that will keep God from pursuing you? In the bible, there is story after story of God pursuing those who rebel against him or feel they are unrecoverable. You must understand that there is no sin too great, or distance we could run, or ocean depth we could sink to that would discourage God from loving us.
WOW!
In church a few Sundays ago, my daughter was on stage with the worship team. The words of the song being sung, went like this—
“I COULDN’T EARN IT. I DON’T DESERVE IT. STILL YOU GIVE YOURSELF AWAY.
THERE’S NO SHADOW YOU WON’T LIGHT UP. MOUNTAIN YOU WON’T CLIMB UP, COMNG AFTER ME.
THERE’S NO WALL YOU WON’T KICK DOWN. LIE YOU WON’T TEAR DOWN, COMING AFTER ME.”
Double WOW!
Mull over these lyrics for a few minutes. Speak them out loud and let them soak into your heart. Then memorize this scripture; “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. And I will live in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalms 23:6 NLT)
God loves you! God will never stop pursuing you!
He wants you in His fold and wants your heart. Simply put, our salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. We can’t earn it, nor do we even deserve it. But still God comes after us with open arms, ready to accept us and forgive us with the kind of love we cannot possibly comprehend or imagine.
So, if today you feel that your life is beyond redemption, that your past has fully caught up to you, I encourage you to look no further than the cross, and the incredible love and forgiveness it offers through Jesus.
God will never let you go, if only will turn your messy life over to him.
I for one am grateful beyond words, that God would save a wretch like me.
Paul Smyth
* If you’ve never given your heart to Jesus Christ, why not answer the Savior’s Call, today?
