Truth is We're Messy People.

Can you think of a time this week where you felt like you let God down? I know I have. For some of us it may have been a harsh word we felt slip from our lips to a friend, parent or co-worker. For others of us it might have been our apathetic attitude towards something or deliberate disobedience. While it is important to honor God and glorify Him, I find that too often we can forget that it won’t always be our natural instinct. We are called to mourn over our sin and repent when we have disobeyed God. However, many of us I feel (myself included) struggle to walk away from what we’ve done even after we’ve asked for forgiveness. Instead, we spend the next few days mulling over what we did wrong, and how could we let God down? What’s wrong with us?  Well, we are fallen, imperfect human beings. That might have something to do with it.

                Rather than beating ourselves up after we’ve already asked for forgiveness and dwelling on how much we messed up, we need to say: “Ok, I messed up. I am not perfect, I cannot pull this off on my own. I cannot glorify God on my own. I need Jesus.” It’s easier to let yourself carry around shame and let that shame define you. While you might think that punishing yourself is the right thing to do, it’s not. If we spend so much time thinking about what we’ve done wrong, we will fail to think more about what Christ did to make things right.

                The thing is no matter how hard we try to do things “right”, we will fail. Rather than sitting around beating ourselves up, when we fail we should remember how Jesus took the beatings for us. Because the reality is there will be days we will not be Kingdom focused, we will have a selfish thought, we will say a harsh word and we will face our prideful hearts. We shouldn’t give up though just because we’re going to fail. We should still pray and read God’s Word. We should learn from our failures but not let them define us. When we let our failures define us, we don’t leave room to let ourselves be defined by who God says we are.

           Yes, we are messy people but we’re messy people who have been drenched in God’s grace. Messy people who are in need of Jesus every single day. While we often will think the opposite, God’s not disgusted or replused by messy people. In fact, He loves them. So if you’ve had one of those days, weeks, or months of feeling a bit too messy lately, don’t be afraid to come to God. He already knows what’s going on in your heart anyways. Might as well share it with Him yourself.

I’m going to stop writing now. I just want you to read some verses and passages about grace and God’s love for us. Read them. Write them down. Memorize them. There will be messy days ahead, but thankfully God in His grace, has given us His Son and His Word to help us navigate through them.

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” –Philippians 2:13

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” –Colossians 2:13-14

“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice, and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” –Titus 3:3-8

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” -2 Peter 1:3-4

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God. But that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. “-1 John 4:9-10

“But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might shows the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.” –Ephesians 2:4-9