SimpleInspires.

Sometimes the enemy looks like anxiety. Sometimes the enemy looks like depression. Sometimes the enemy looks like procrastination. Sometimes the enemy looks like complacency. Sometimes the enemy looks like negativity. Sometimes the enemy looks like fun. Sometimes the enemy looks like a good idea. Sometimes the enemy looks like he’s not that bad.

You will say, ‘Oh, I am one of the worst in the world.’ Christ died for the worst in the world. 'Oh, but I have no power to be better.’ Christ died for those that were without strength. 'Oh, but my case condemns itself.’ Christ died for those that legally are condemned. 'Ay, but my case is hopeless.’ Christ died for the hopeless. He is the hope of the hopeless. He is the Savior not of those partly lost, but of the wholly lost.

I hear a lot of people saying, “I don’t feel God anymore.” And there’s a lot of guilt there, like they’re not trying hard enough. But “not-feeling-God” doesn’t make you a bad Christian: just an honest one. And maybe our baseline for “feeling-Him” got messed up with a false foundation.Maybe when Life Got Hard, no one taught you a clear theology on pain. Maybe no one mentioned that seasons of doubt, suffering, and detachment are regular valleys in a believer’s life.Those are also the EXACT times we go to God and tell Him everything. To even say, “I don’t feel you right now, God.” You can tell Him that.Most of us think we’ve failed God when we don’t feel Him, when it’s actually that feeling of His absence that can either push you to Him or from Him. He’d much rather it be to Him.

Love does not pamper. It prunes and perfects and pursues. It is a sweet embrace and a sanctifying chisel.

I have come to know a God who has a soft spot for rebels, who recruits people like the adulterer David, the whiner Jeremiah, the traitor Peter, and the human-rights abuser Saul of Tarsus. I have come to know a God whose Son made prodigals the heroes of his stories and the trophies of his ministry.