Where True Worship and Transformation Happen for Sinners and Believers
There are many things in life that you can be sure of, and one of those things is the fact that you are going to mess up. Call me a realist or pragmatist, or however you want to label it, but the truth is, as long as you are a human, you are going to mess up. You might as well face it, there’s just no way around it.
The amazing thing about God is that He doesn’t chuck us out when we do. Sure, He has every right to do so. I mean, how much patience can one person have, right? I’ve only got two kids, and my patience is fried most days. All of us messing up all the time, and what does He do? He leans in closer and says, “Get up. Try again. I’ll help you.”
He really is the absolute best dad I know.
No matter what it is, He’s there to show us yet again how much He loves us. How much He absolutely believes in us. How much He is cheering us on and setting us up for success. But do you want to know the sweetest part?
Grace. When we get it, I mean truly understand, the depths of His grace, we aren’t pursuing being holy out of a desire to not be shameful. We pursue holiness because of how much He unbelievably loves us.
Over and over again we harlot ourselves out, we stumble, we fall. But again, what does He do? He calls us higher and tells us that with Him all things are possible. Even you, overcoming this, that is possible.
When we see His heart and His kindness toward us; When we truly believe it, we want to obey Him not because we are afraid of what may happen if we don’t. We want to please Him, not out of fear, but out of love. Our love toward Him, as a reflection of His love toward us, drives us to “be holy as He is holy.” His kindness truly does lead us to repentance.
It’s from this genuine reciprocal place that true worship and transformation happens. Obedience from love.
Coach and Joe’s recent episode, Grace is Still Saving Me, so powerfully communicates how God’s deep grace for us calls us out and calls us higher. The continual saving, the continual restoration made possible through Jesus, should never make us walk in shame. It should turn our hearts as true admiration of a Father who loves His kids so deeply despite the odds stacked against us, and the inevitable probability of us disappointing Him.
He made a way for us to be together again. He looks at us and smiles with that big daddy smile, and He invites us deeper. {eoa}
