What can I do to let in the Light?
Only God can affect real honest change. It is through grace we are saved. Sometimes it is easier to extend grace to others than to claim it for ourselves. Indeed, it would be impossible to even accept grace at all, if God wasn’t calling us. Do you know that there is nothing you can do to make God hate you?
God is loving and love proceeds from God. Those who know love, know God for God is love.
Some of our “sins” we judge as sort-of bad, some worse and others perhaps unforgivable. We can make the mistake of quantifying levels of sin. God, however, does not have a scale that weighs our sins, or our short-comings. Apostle Paul was a man many thought to be beyond reproach. He was held in high-esteem. Paul did not see himself in that way and so wrote about himself as “being the worst of all sinners.” But then he goes onto declare that neither he nor God hold that negative account against him. His “freedom in Christ in all things” was bought by Christ’s blood — not from following the current doctrine of his day. It was Paul’s relationship with Jesus that made him justified before the Father. Concentrating on what NOT to do (sin) or worrying about what you may be doing wrong is a trap. We avoid that trap on concentrating on what God would have us do. The freedom from sin that Jesus advocates does not come from avoiding sin, but from concentrating on what God would have us pursue. Jesus came to make “sin” irrelevant and have no power over us.
When Jesus came, He began His act of grace, by showing how impossible it was for man to reach God on human merit. Jesus through his teachings made the “narrow way” even more narrow till, at one point, the disciples became so frustrated that they threw up their hands and exclaimed “Who can be saved?” To this Jesus responded, “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” What does that mean for me? What does that mean for you?
Are you relying on your own attempts at righteousness? Do you think that will be sufficient?
Jesus laid down His life for us, so that we could live without fear and self condemnation. We may never fully appreciate how much God loves and accepts us. God meets you where you are at today. It is God who made you, and it is God who calls you, it is God who justifies you, and embraces you!
Be honest with who you really are now and accept God’s love, tender grace, and forgive yourself.
Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Will you open your closet door and let God’s light in?