I feel led to share a thought with you so I am going to type a mid day post before I forget what I swant to say.
I keep thinking back to the days before I was saved. The days before I had given my life to Jesus. There were quite a few Christians that I had come across along my journey. They were awesome people who truly loved Jesus. I would constantly be told that Jesus was the way to eternal life. It seemed like that was what every Christian that I encountered focused on. Every where I turned I was being told that if I wanted to live forever then I should come to know Jesus because He was the only way. What everyone failed to understand was that every time I heard that- my heart was screaming "I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE AT ALL SO WHY DO I CARE ABOUT LIVING FOREVER!!!". I think that sometimes we as Christians tend to focus on the Eternal Life aspect of Jesus as the way to save. This totally works for some but for others who are totally broken, they sometimes need another message.
I often think that if someone would have seen the real me and seen the person who felt unloved, unwanted, unworthy and told me that there was a Jesus who was real that could love me unconditionally (just the way I was)- I might have listened. If I knew that there was a Jesus who didn't expect anything in return for His love except for me to love Him back- I might have listened. If I knew that my self worth was not my value to him and had nothing to do with whether He would love me or not- I might have listened.
I feel like I have been led to write this to encourage those of us who are Christians to take a look at how we are sharing the love of Jesus with non-believers. I also write it to encourage any of you who might not know it that Jesus loves you just the way you are. He wants nothing more than a relationship with you. You don't have to change or get your life right. He will take you beat down and broken and then He will make you whole. I know one thing that I didn't understand is that I wasn't the one who needed to do the changing. I kept trying to do it on my own. I knew I didn't want to go on living the life I was living but nothing I tried worked. I simply needed to make the decision to turn my life over to Him and let Him do the changing in me.
Thank you for letting me share my heart.
I totally agree with your blog. I heard plenty about the judgmental side of God, and I truly thought I had to become PERFECT before God would love me.... What a JOKE that I actually BELIEVED that!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard Michael Craft speak, I thought it was blasphemy! Then I started thinking, "Could this POSSIBLY be TRUE?" "Have I had it wrong all these years?!" Well, of course, I had it wrong. Way wrong.
But until you hear the gracious LOVE part of God -- and get it into your heart and mind -- yep, I believe we ALL feel worthless and unlovable and worst of all unSALVAGEable... but oh how sweet life becomes once you find the truth!