Day 83: Love Despite Our Sin
Read: Genesis 11:31-32
I stood in the back of my church’s Sunday worship service. The band played in the front as the congregation sang worship songs together. I stood frozen as my mind ran over my sin from that week, some of which I realized I didn’t even have a desire to turn away from. I felt dirty and like I could not go before God in worship.
My mouth stayed shut and my body stiff as a wave of shame overcame me. Then God reached in. He reminded me that I don’t have to clean up myself before coming to Him but that He first wants me as I am. He wanted me to come before Him in worship and prayer with fellow believers and from there we would work through my sin.
The end of Genesis 11 is an account of Abram’s family. When the genealogy picks up again Matthew 1, it ends with Christ. Abram came from a family of idol worshipers. This line was not made of followers of God, yet God chose them to be the line from which His Son would descend.
God doesn’t choose people from clean backgrounds to be part of the story He is writing. None of us even have clean backgrounds. God redeems the most unlikely stories to become part of His. He chose Abram’s family of idol worshipers to be the ancestors of Jesus Christ. He didn’t ask them to change their ways before choosing them. He made the first move and redeemed the line of Abram from there.
God doesn’t ask us to clean up our act before coming to Him either. When He first calls us to salvation, He asks us to accept His gift of forgiveness first and from there He walks alongside us as He transforms our life. Even now, as Christians, He doesn’t ask us to live purely before coming to Him in prayer and worship. He wants us and loves us as we are.
Yes, God asks Christians to live in a certain way that looks most like Him, but we aren’t supposed to try to do that before going to Him. For one, we won’t be able to do it on our own. But also, God wants to walk that road alongside us. He delights in His children and wants to do life with us. He wants us to be part of His story now.
Don’t try to hide from God when you mess up today. Go to Him right away, remembering that He delights in You all the same and wants to walk through both the ups and downs right alongside you.