I felt UNWORTHY as a child of God earlier in my life. Those feelings increased in their intensity with each new sin or bad thought that crossed the cinema of my mind. I was (and still am) a SINNER.
This negative cycle created and reinforced a damaging self-perception that I could never live a Christ-like life. Thank God it was a LIE!
Thinking we are no good for God leads us to start thinking we are no good for others; no good for our families and friends; no good for anyone. We make it a zero-sum game. We are sinners and bad, not the behavior or the thought. If anything is wrong, everything is wrong.
I failed to realize that ALL OF US ARE SINNERS. You. Me. Everyone.
I tried hard to “be better,” but could NOT hammer out the sin.
I tried hard to “be perfect,” but could NOT hammer out the sin.
I tried to make it “go away,” but could NOT hammer out the sin.
Even if we know to our core that God shows us unmerited favor, we often try to prove we are worthy of his grace by “being good” as described above. But God says none of that matters. He says we are worthy of his grace based on who we are in Christ, not what we have done.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8
For most of us, we have trouble believing that God is control because we are soaked in stress and full of futility. We are trying to manage the unmanageable and the predictable results are chaos, confusion, and conflict.
God tells us stop trying to figure everything out, especially the future. Even though we have trouble believing it, the teaching of the Bible is very clear that we are not in control.
Am I a sinner? Yes. But God took my sin away on Calvary and given me a way to truly live on earth and bask in the glory of Heaven for eternity.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you come to grips with the reality that you are a sinner and given it over to God so he can wash away the stain?
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3
