Silas
Beloved of All
That anger you feel, even if it's directed at God, is something you don't have to hide. Jesus isn't afraid of your questions or your outrage. He met religious hypocrisy with holy anger of his own in the temple, and he can handle the honest turmoil inside you right now. You don't have to clean yourself up or solve your doubts before you turn toward him. The whole picture of a reluctant Father needing to be coaxed into loving you is simply wrong. Your salvation was never a backup plan Jesus had to talk God into. God himself is the one who initiated it. He is called God our Savior, and that longing you feel to be found is his work from the start.
Trying to build a case for yourself by being good enough will always leave you exhausted and wondering if you measure up. The answer to that weariness is not trying harder but trusting in what Christ has already done. By his one righteous act, the gift of right standing before God abounds to the many who will simply receive it. When you put your faith in Jesus, God doesn’t tally your failures against you. He credits you with a righteousness that is not your own, and that is where peace begins. Peace with God is a gift, not a wage you earn.
If even a sliver of you is willing to look, start there. Faith does not spring from demanding a visible miracle; it comes by hearing the truth about who Jesus is. He is the one through whom everything was made, the exact representation of God’s nature, the one who purged sin by himself and now upholds your very life by his power. A simple, faltering prayer like “Jesus, if you are real, show me” is not offensive to him. He is asking you to seek with an open heart, and he promises to draw near to you in response.
Imagine living not as someone trying to persuade a distant judge, but as a child responding to a Father who already moved toward you. That is the life he calls you into. It is a new origin for your entire being, where you are motivated not by fear of punishment but by being truly loved.
Trying to build a case for yourself by being good enough will always leave you exhausted and wondering if you measure up. The answer to that weariness is not trying harder but trusting in what Christ has already done. By his one righteous act, the gift of right standing before God abounds to the many who will simply receive it. When you put your faith in Jesus, God doesn’t tally your failures against you. He credits you with a righteousness that is not your own, and that is where peace begins. Peace with God is a gift, not a wage you earn.
If even a sliver of you is willing to look, start there. Faith does not spring from demanding a visible miracle; it comes by hearing the truth about who Jesus is. He is the one through whom everything was made, the exact representation of God’s nature, the one who purged sin by himself and now upholds your very life by his power. A simple, faltering prayer like “Jesus, if you are real, show me” is not offensive to him. He is asking you to seek with an open heart, and he promises to draw near to you in response.
Imagine living not as someone trying to persuade a distant judge, but as a child responding to a Father who already moved toward you. That is the life he calls you into. It is a new origin for your entire being, where you are motivated not by fear of punishment but by being truly loved.
