Day 2403 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Acts 17:30 NIV

Got another problematic way of thinking that I have a hunch many people fall into. We hear so much about how God loves us. That's one of if not the most popular message about the Gospel. It's one of the first little songs that we learn to sing in Sunday School. But we can become so focused on that side of the Gospel that we forget the other half. Yes, He does love us. He loves us more than we can understand. He loves us too much to allow us to stay where we are: lost in sin and controlled by evil.

This hit me the other night while I was praying. It's like I see God as my best friend. And He is. He should be. He should be the closest relationship that we have. But where it can become a little dangerous is when we allow ourselves to fall into this assumption that He will continually overlook our mistakes. He is the epitome of love, forgiveness, salvation, and mercy. But He is also a God that is to be feared and respected above and beyond anything else.

That's where I think people can start struggling a bit. We always want to see the comfortable and easy side of things. We want people around us who will tell us what we want to hear. We want to be able to relax into this mindset where we can do anything we want without facing the consequences. But we can take that so far that our faith becomes nothing more than this get out of jail free card. We just assume that God's forgiveness will always be available so we can do whatever we want because well, He will forgive us again.

But no matter how comfortable or convenient it may be, God is never going to compromise on His holiness. He will never relax His calling for us to be holy as well. He will never ignore His commandments just because we find it easier to do so. That's why we need to be careful to not fall into only seeing God as our best friend. He is that, but He is still God too. So He isn't going to "chill out" on sin just because we're bent toward it. He is going to always want more for us and from us than a life of sin and wickedness.

The thing is that we should want that as well. We should want more than the feelings of guilt and shame that come from living only to please our selfish desires. We should want more than a life that's just a copy of the fallen world we're travelling through. We should want more than settling for good enough. God calls us to repent and change our ways and follow His path instead. And He isn't going to change His mind on that just because we're not all that interested in changing or leaving our selfishness behind.

The bottom line is that yes, God loves us. But His love is a love that desires us to repent of our sins and live for more than the brokenness that we've called home for so long. There will come a day when there is no more time to ask for forgiveness. There will come a day when we don't have any more chances to repent. Don't risk waiting too long and running out of time. His love should push us to do better because He deserves better. Just don't make the mistake of equating His love with concession. As I said yesterday, He isn't going to change His mind so we better change ours!

The fact is that we're no longer ignorant of His truth or the calling of the Gospel. We can't claim that we don't know the difference between right and wrong. We can't say that we didn't know sin was bad or that God wasn't okay with it. With knowledge comes responsibility, and we're the ones who are responsible for admitting our mistakes and repenting of our sins.

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