Today I had a significant interaction with God. I finally acknowledged that I had been once again resisting His love and mercy. I know that I do not deserve His love and mercy, but I finally allowed myself to realize that I had been wounding Jesus by my unbelief.
It is fairly often that an image flashes in my mind of a sorrowful yet loving expression on Jesus’ face: the expression that I imagine that He has whenever I hurt Him. I have associated this expression with Jesus’ reaction to the times when I do not live out His beautiful, selfless principles, and to His reaction to the times when I do not reveal His love in my interactions with others. Now I also associate this expression with the grief that I cause Jesus by another sin of which I have been guilty: unbelief and resistance in the face of His incredible mercy and love. I see that refusing to truly receive His forgiveness and doubting His love WOUND Him (I plan to make a blog post about receiving forgiveness soon: this is a very important and liberating topic). Why did He go to the cross? Why does He continually hold out His forgiveness and His grace for overcoming sin?
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NKJV)
The thought of hurting Jesus hurts me and it drives me to want to live differently. I am seeing more and more clearly that sins both great and small hurt Jesus. The cry of my heart is that, if I know that I am hurting Jesus, I want to stop. Jesus loves mercy and wants to extend it to everyone, anywhere, who is willing to accept it. It hurts Jesus to see His mercy being doubted and/or unaccepted because of unbelief. Jesus will forgive anyone, anywhere, who is willing to be forgiven by Him. It hurts Jesus to see His forgiveness doubted and/or unaccepted because of unbelief.
No matter how unworthy we may feel, for Jesus’ sake, let us allow Him to love us to the fullest extent. In light of what I have been sharing here today, I would now like to share a song that touches my heart.
I will now bring this blog post to a close with the following appeal copied and pasted, and slightly edited from this blog-post:
“…I am inviting all of us to just come to Jesus as we are. We may feel scared and ashamed, but Jesus’ arms are open to us. He will not refuse us if we come. He promises not to cast us out if we come (John 6:37). He promises to give us rest if we will come (Matthew 11:28-30). He promises to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
If anyone reading this doesn’t know how to pray, that is okay. Below is a sample prayer that can be used, but it is okay and right to talk to Jesus as one would respectfully talk to a close friend.
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Dear Jesus,
I want to know You. I know that I am a sinner and I ask Your forgiveness for my sins. Please give me a new heart and help me to be like You. Please help me to know You.
In Jesus’ Name Amen
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I can promise all of us that Jesus will hear our sincere prayers and that He will help us.
God says that He loves us (Jeremiah 31:3). He says that He wants to save us and that He can save us (John 3:16). He says that He has created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7). He says that even when we have messed up, He still wants to sanctify Himself before those who have seen our messes, by living out His holy life through us. This will happen as He changes our hearts (Ezekiel 36: 23-27). God says that there will be people from every people group in heaven (Revelation 5:9-10). We are most welcome to hold our heads high in humble humility. We have the privilege of believing what God says about us… and ultimately…. what He says about us is what really matters.
Blessings and courage. “
The quoted Bible verses, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, in this blog post are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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