God loves us, even when we don’t love ourselves! The Bible makes it pretty clear that His love for us is not based on our actions, but His nature. 1 Timothy 1:14-15 says, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst” [NIV]. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are saved and fully clothed with His grace. He loved us before we were saved, but now He demonstrates His love in a new way with His salvation through Jesus Christ!
I remember one time as a kid I made a silly mistake and still regret what I did. I was five years old, and I didn’t have a concept of right and wrong and what was considered lawful and unlawful because I was so young. It’s not that my parents didn’t teach me well, but when you are a tiny citizen of society, you don’t always learn the rules of society until you get older. But I stole a pack of gum at the grocery store! I told my mom about it after we left the store with a smile on my face then she explained to me how wrong that was, and I promise I never did that again!
In comparison, sometimes I think sinners of the world are like that, naïve and accustomed to ways of the world where they are blind to what’s right and wrong. This isn’t the case for every sinner, but there is something to be said about giving grace to sinners, not to enable them in their sins but as a way to encourage them to stop sinning. There’s a big difference there.
We assume every sinner does their sin meticulously when I think some sin is done out of ignorance. How many times do you cuss when you stub your toe or spill a drink over yourself? You can teach yourself not to curse yourself in unfavorable circumstances with God’s help, but it is in our human nature. How many times can you be jealous of someone where you curse their progress in the Lord? We can even do this as Christians. But God has grace for that if we repent because He loves us! But continuous sin and blindness are especially prevalent in unbelievers. It says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of Christ” [ESV].
But since God loves us, let’s turn to Him! Give Him our burdens, cares, and desires! He wants to meet our expectations more than we know but not always how we expect Him to do so! Because sometimes we don’t what we want or what’s best for us. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” [NIV]. We can rely on the power of prayer because He loves us so much! So now, why don’t you fold your hands and mutter a prayer to God before you fall asleep next time! It only takes a simple prayer of, “God, show me how much You love me. Amen.” He can take it from there. He hears the Holy Spirit “groaning” in you that you need Him.
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