I grew up in church and depending on the day there could be a huge range of emotions. From shame to being overjoyed. One thing that happens in church a lot of times is you get assumptions about things. The whole concept is actually really lucrative. One person tells us what's right. No one else has a say-so. No one else can interject. You could always walk out but most people don’t know how to. I didn’t know how to. Every time I have left a church and never came back it wasn't because I didn’t like a sermon. It was because I didn’t like myself in that place. It was because I felt alone in a room full of people. It was because I couldn't relate. It was because of everything but God.
Sadly in today's Christianity, we tend to ostracize people out of faith too often. We are really good at pointing to the problems and not necessarily pointing to Christ. I am not talking about a church in particular. I have seen this in every church and group. Right now it's a mainstream idea that God hates certain types of people. Although most churches don’t promote this it could be assumed according to the way we portray God that he hates certain types of people. I want to say this right now. God doesn’t hate people. It’s not a verse in the bible. So why is it so easy for so many people to feel like God hates them? Like God is against them. It's partly due to the way we portray God.
It is easy to not like the way God is portrayed when we focus on his rules. It's easy to dislike the idea of God when we focus on the harsh realities of this world. It’s easy to leave your faith on the backburner when you can only think about God in light of your failures. I want to make this point very clear, no matter who you are, God doesn’t hate you. You could be gay, you could be a smoker, you could be a thief, you could be someone who would never enter a church. God doesn’t hate you. As long as you see God through your shortcomings you will never see him as he is. I had to learn to see myself through God’s desire for me and not my desire for him. He has always loved me and I’m still learning how to love him, his way. God is perfect. He is nowhere near our level. He wasn't born into a system of rules. People's limited opinions don’t decide His perception of life.
I would encourage you to see God the way he says he is, not what people say about him. I know I couldn’t see a picture of a loving God until I did a few things in my own personal life. I had to start seeing God in a certain way. So these are a few lenses that I view God with.
# 1 God loves sinners. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. We know because of the way Jesus talked through the gospels when Jesus says God loved the world he isn’t talking about the place, He is talking about the people. God loved people that are sinners. This is an important part of understanding God. He doesn't love sin, he loves the sinner. He doesn’t love our actions. He loves us. You need to know that. No matter what title you give yourself. No matter what you identify as. No matter who people think you are, God loves you. God loves you because of who He created you to be not what you allowed yourself to do.
#2 God gives to sinners. God gave his son which means for us that God understood our need for his son. God understands our needs even when we don’t know our own. There is a verse that says God gives rain to the saint and the sinner alike. Our sins don't change how God desires to give to us. Some people think that their sin is the reason they have so many problems in their life. Actually, it's not you, it’s life. We are all dealing with hardships, problems, and setbacks. No one is immune to problems. If you sin or don’t, it doesn't change how life will always bring us problems. Some people learn from church that if they are good enough then God will give us something great. However we were sinners and God gave us Jesus, who is the greatest human listed in the bible. There is actually a verse that says at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is lord. Needless to say, Jesus is a big deal in all of creation. God gave us Jesus while we were still sinners. You can be good or evil and God still gives. Trying to live for eternal approval will often have you trying to live for the wrong reasons. Different bible verses talk about the cause and effect of living a certain way but I just wanted to make the simple point that our sin doesn't change God, it changes us. God is not surprised that you failed. He is not disgusted with you. He loves you and he knows you.
# 3 Saints sin, a lot. The Bible is a book full of stories showing us people trying their best to measure up to God’s holiness. They try to be as good as possible and still come horribly short many times. Samson was the strongest man on the Earth but he rarely confronted the threats that Israelites faced. He was usually drunk or looking for a woman to sleep with. He was the greatest alpha male who ever existed but failed horribly at fulfilling God's will for his life. King David, who God himself called a man after God’s own heart. He killed Goliath and confronted countless enemies on behalf of God and Israel. He outperformed Samson by far with actually fighting for God and also with protecting the Israelites from threats. However, David couldn’t live up to the path of holiness. David decided to sleep with another man's wife. It might seem innocent but understanding that David is king and she was just an innocent woman it's easy to see that David took advantage of her. He also killed her husband. It's one of the darkest deeds ever done in the bible.
The reason I'm bringing up these stories is so we can understand our current life. The strongest of men and the holiest of men came extremely short in doing the right thing and not sinning. No matter who the person is, we all deal with some type of sin and failure. The bible proves to us that there are no perfect people. We all have weak moments like Abraham in his faith in God's promise. Like Thomas who doubted Jesus had risen while looking at him in the room. Like Moses who thought he couldn’t speak well enough to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Like Peter who denied he was associated with Jesus. Like Esther who doubted whether God would require anything from her life and position.
If you look at every story in the bible the one thing they have in common is God calls everyone to face their weakness in light of his strength. Abraham was to have a child in old age. Moses was called to lead people in light of his failed coup attempt when he killed an Egyptian guard. Paul was called to minister to people that he previously killed. Paul would literally be a middle eastern terrorist in today's world. Full of rage and indignation. It’s ok to be weak. It’s ok to have mistakes. It’s ok to be a saint that might sin again. Because we are the only saints that exist. God has a habit of using the failures and saints who sins.
People might make you feel like they never mess up or never have problems in their relationship with God but they would be putting up a front. We can easily see in the Bible that every person God used wasn't good enough to save themselves let alone the people around them. They all depended on God. They all needed help. They all needed advice and correction. They all needed time to figure out all the things that weighed on their life. They all got something wrong while getting some things right. We are limited people with limited lives. Have grace on yourself so you can feel that amazing grace from God. Have a love for yourself so you can feel the love God has for you. Have patience with your failures so you can feel the peace that passes understanding from God. In the end, all men are liars about something because we will never know everything. But I hope you realize that God doesn't hate you, sin does. God does know everything and he has decided, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever will believe in him shall be saved.
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