He loves us

I will be the first to tell you, I am an awful person. I have done things, and said things I hope no one ever finds out! Even though I did not want Him to know, Jesus knew what I was going to do before I did it, and He knew the terrible things I was doing in secret (1 Tim. 5:24-25). He is the one person I did not want to confess to because I did not want Him to know what I had done. For the longest time, and still a little bit now, I saw Him as this great perfect being who only loved me from a distance. By that I mean I knew He loved me, wanted a relationship with me, and would always forgive me when I mess up and confess my sin, I just did not believe that. Now, having only recently realized this, I'm still having difficulty believing it. This is an issue of getting on another level of trust of God. Growing up in church, I've heard this same old story my whole life. Only in my teens have I been able to start to grasp this concept. I think the reason why is because I can only see my failures. I cannot see the big picture God is painting. This goes back to feeling like God loved me from a distance. So often Christians get wrapped up in the formalities of Christianity, we forget that not much of anything Jesus did was formal. He went into the temple with a whip and turned over tables and kicked out the money changers! I do not know about you, but if someone were to do that at my church I think some feathers would be ruffled. For whatever reason we think we have to dress a certain way, pray for hours every day, read our Bible morning, noon, and night to be Christians! Do not get me wrong, if you are a prayer warrior go you! If you do take time to read your Bible a lot, that is amazing! But do not believe that is what makes you a good Christian. A good Christian lives like Jesus. Christ and Christ alone is our standard to live by. No one else can live a perfect life, and that is OKAY. He expects us to fall, He expects us to stumble because He knows we have a nasty sin nature that we are constantly at war with. The beautiful part of it all is, He knows we are going to fall yet He loves us anyway. Before you were ever born he saw you and thought to Himself "I want him." or "I want her." He wants YOU. You are wanted by the God of the UNIVERSE. So when satan has you stuck between a rock and a hard place remember this, you were chosen. You were predestined before the creation of the universe to find His love and accept His eternal gift of salvation. I do not know about you, but that excites me!!