Simply Receive

Time and time again I have found that out of every truth the Bible holds the one that people struggle to believe most is that God truly loves them. The core truth, the most foundational, the one that we bet everything on when we first embark on the journey with Jesus, is somehow lost. Somehow, we have forgotten that He found us! That He called out our name and chose us before the world existed. Imagine you are walking down a dirt road, and you are covered in mud from all the times you slipped and fell. Your head is stooped low, and sorrow is all you feel. All of a sudden, a stranger starts running toward you from the opposite direction and he yells out your name. When he gets to you, he offers you shelter (and a shower) and clean clothes. Not only that but he has a feast awaiting you at his house! You think to yourself, "Does he know why I'm walking this path and how I've slipped because of my own choices? I don't deserve what he is offering." Hearing your thoughts he exclaims, "I know, but that doesn't matter! I am here and now you can be clean and free!" Not thinking twice, you receive his invitation.

You're walking down the road, and for a while its apparent that this gift of shelter and a new start has nothing to do with you, rather it has everything to do with this kind stranger you met. You discover that the shelter he is bringing you to is not a final destination, but instead you are on a continuous journey. And instead of a one-time shower, you are actually making pitstops to wash off the dirt and mud. You look up and to your surprise there is a canopy always above as you trek along.

A few months later, you grow weary, and you make the decision to rely on an old habit to bring you temporary satisfaction. Your feet slip and you're covered in mud again, and you say to yourself, "Oh no, he got me clean once, what's he going to say? Will he still think highly of me? Is the canopy gone? Am I going to be alone again?" But the kind stranger sees your fall and extends a hand, with the kindest eyes you have ever seen. You head to another cleansing pool and are clothed once again in garments of white. This pattern repeats, two, three, six, one-hundred times! And each time, you are embraced by this kind soul.

You see, this stranger knew all along that you would fall into the mud again. He knew that you would need cleansing over and over and over. He was purposeful when he set out for you, when he called out your name. It was his choice, and he will never regret it. He is not taken by surprise when you falter. When he chose you, he said you were loved, not because you could stay out of the mud, but because he decided to have you as his own, mud and all! He was so eager to befriend you, that he made a way for you to be spotless.

When Jesus died, it was for the joy of knowing you and having an intimate relationship with you. He went willingly to the cross so that the mud would no longer have power over you being clean. He always sees you in white, He always sees you as clean and lovely. As you walk this path with Him, He is the one making you clean. You can't make yourself clean, no matter how hard you try. That is why Jesus went to the cross! The spirit of the law existed to show how dirty we are and that we need a savior, but no person could live up to the law, which is every command in His Word. When Jesus died, He gave us the law of the Spirit, His own body broken and his blood poured out for us, because He knew we could not be clean otherwise.

He never expected us to make ourselves clean. He knew we never could. Now He is preparing a heavenly home for us, and as we walk this earth, He is perfecting us in His love. What we have found in Him could never be earned, which means when it's true, it cannot be lost. This matters because we often base whether or not we are loved on how clean we are and our ability to earn something. You cannot earn something that is free. So, if you are wondering if you're truly loved, the answer is a resounding yes. If you are wondering if you are clean, the answer is yes, yes, yes. Not because you are staying out of the mud, but because He continuously washes you. The only requirement is that you keep walking the path with Him. That way, even when you fall in the mud, He will give you clean garments and kiss your wounds.

If you are ever wondering if you are loved, it may be because you are seeing the grace and love of God as something to be earned, and not simply received. I love this quote by Steven Furtick, he said, "Accepting Jesus was easy, accepting Steven has taken a lifetime." You may have accepted Jesus, you may intellectually know that He loves you and makes you clean, but maybe, just maybe, you don't love yourself. Maybe your standards are higher than Jesus's for you. Maybe you are living to perfection through your own efforts and denying the pleasure of your heavenly Father in accepting His gift of grace. Imagine watching your child fall in the mud and after wearing a shame face, rejecting your affection. You try telling them over and over that you see them as clean and have new clothes for them to put on, but they insist on the dirty ones and withdraw from you.

Jesus has your new garments ready and is looking at you with deep love. He is a better judge of you than you are of yourself. Today, simply receive your new garments and let your standard of perfection through your own strength die.

Romans 8:3-4

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Hebrews 12:2

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit...

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.