TBA

God is a gentle and patient Father. He has the power to make us do whatever he wants whenever he wants. But does he?

“Anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!” Revelation 22:17

No. He asks. He doesn’t demand. “All who will-come!“ He gives us a choice to come to him. This is a repeated concept throughout his word. He doesn’t just ask once or twice and then give up. He is constantly asking and inviting us to come to him- until he draw our very last breath. He doesn’t want us to miss out on the amazing fulfillment of his gentle love. “I want you to experience how wide and long and high and deep is my love for you so that you can know my love that surpasses knowledge.” Jesus Calling

“Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go.” John 6:37

“My love won’t walk away from you my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart The God who has compassion on you says so.” Isaiah 54:10

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs and our aching groans.” Romans 8:26

I’ve read about 3 different versions of this passage and I think my favorite is from the Message:

Psalm 49:12-19 We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long. Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die. This is what happens to those who live for the moment, who only look out for themselves: Death herds them like sheep straight to hell; they disappear down the gullet of the grave; They waste away to nothing- nothing left but a marker in a cemetery. But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death, he reaches down and grabs me. So. don’t be impressed with those who get rich and pile up fame and fortune. They can’t take it with them; fame and fortune all get left behind. Just when they think they’ve arrived and folks praise them because they’ve made good, They enter the burial plot where they’ll never see sunshine again.

If we live for ourselves we will suffer the consequences, but if we live for God he will make sure that we’re taken care of. Living for ourselves will only leave us empty and unhappy. It doesn’t fill that God-shaped hole in our souls. As cliche as it may sound, living for God is the only way to be truly happy.

So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot Jeremiah 18:3-4

“Sometimes you forget that My righteousness is a gift, and you feel ill at ease in your regal robe. I weep when I see you squirming under the velvety fabric, as if it were of scratchy sackcloth.” -Jesus Calling

I will sing for joy in God explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, He outfitted me in a robe of righteousness Isaiah 61:10

God paid a steep price to give us his free gift of righteousness- his only son. Jesus went through all of that pain, torture, and suffering for us. Simply because he loved us that much. The end. We squirm in our robe when we start to feel unworthy in it. We feel as though we can shoulder our sins on our own. “It’s my sin.” “I did this. It’s my responsibility to fix it.” “I can handle this on my own. I don’t need anyone to help me fix it.” Then we get overwhelmed and slip further into our sin. It’s a vicious cycle. And it breaks God’s heart. It insults him. What was the point of his gift if we’re just going to try and deal with everything ourselves? (and ultimately fail anyways...) God wants us to realize that we need to trust him- he can handle all of our sins. He wants us to realize that we are worthy of that robe of righteousness and that suit of salvation. When we start to feel that sense of unworthiness, instead of throwing off that robe, we need to throw off the behavior that is making us feel unworthy in the first place. God gave us this gift because he loves us. He wants us to enjoy it. He wants us to wear it proudly for the world to see. We need to keep our eyes on him and practice walking in his righteousness and salvation.