If you have ever questioned yourself on whether you should pray or not because you're "sure"that you're "a bad person" and you don't think God will pay attention to you... know that you're not alone. Personally, I have felt that way, I know many people that have felt that way, and I have seen the question pop-up over and over and over throughout social media, religious groups, and forums. I have seen many questions asked that all revolve around the same topic:
"Will God listen to me?"
"I have failed so many times, will God forgive me?"
"I have asked God for forgiveness so many times that I don't think He will forgive me anymore... right?"
"I'm a terrible human being, can God accept me?"
"How can God, which is so perfect, can relate or be interested in someone like me?"
"I feel so guilty that I don't even have the courage to show my face to God. He's probably very disappointed at me..."
... and on and on it goes...
As I said, personally and a long time ago, I was in the shoes of many that question whether God is interested in knowing what I had to say. I felt terribly "dirty" (spiritually speaking) and evil... I could not properly assimilate that a God so perfect would bother paying attention to me. When I bent my knees to pray, something within me was just telling me that I should not be wasting my time, that God couldn't possibly relate to me. After all, in my mind, I thought that if I did something wrong against someone over and over, that person would stop wanting to be with me or hang out with me... so, why would God be any different? I had broken His law way too many times, why would He even incline his ear to hear my asking for forgiveness...? Thoughts like these just flooded my mind day after day. One day, however, I decided I was going to ask His forgiveness regardless, I decided that I was going to have faith in that He would indeed listen and I began a quest for answers. How merciful God is? How valuable I was? How does God's mind operate when it comes to forgiving?
Like me, many out there have asked these types of questions. Like me back then, many go to their beds feeling uneasy and wondering whether their prayer was heard... whether someone will respond. Lucky for me, I found the answers I was looking for and what I learned simply 'blew my mind' and made me fall in love with Jesus even more.
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We got it backwards...
As I pushed through my studies and began listening to sermons uploaded to YouTube, the concept of "love" kept ringing in my head. As a kid raised in church, I grew up listening and memorizing the "Jesus 101" course phrases that everyone hears, repeats and share all over social media. "Jesus love me and you", "Jesus died for us", "God is love", "God is merciful"... and the list just keeps going. The fact that we memorize these phrases at young ages and the fact that as we grow we continue to repeat these phrases to generations and to the people walking into our churches or homes, to a greater or lesser degree subtracts meaning from it and the repetition sounds more like tradition rather than conviction. Are you following me? When we say things by mere tradition, the words don't quite convey the meaning they should, they don't come off just right. This is a major problem.
I began to understand that we have been asking the wrong questions, "will God listen to me and forgive me?..." (and so on) when I came to the realization that my mom truly loves me. LOL, I know... seems like a random comment but, stay with me. Despite all my bad behaviors, bad traits, bad friendships that I took on, despite my mistakes... my mom loved me. As I reflected on that I realized that there's nothing I could possibly do on earth that would make my mom love me less. I'm sure you can think of a family member or even a friend that you can say that off. No matter what path I decide to take in life... I know that I can always go back home and be received in my mother's arms. Having arrived at this conclusion, the question that follows is kind of obvious, no? If humans are able to offer that kind of love... how much more God that carefully crafted us, imagined us, and created us?
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.'" - Jeremiah 1:4-5
Side Note: Of course, if God knew that prophet before he was born, God knew YOU before you were born. Furthermore, just as God had a purpose for that prophet since before the prophet was born, in a very similar way God has a purpose, a plan for YOU. Are you fulfilling God's purpose for your life?
When we question whether God will hear us or forgive us, we simply are making the wrong question/s. For someone to forgive despite the circumstances that may surround you, that someone must LOVE... so, we should be questioning instead, "does God loves me? and, if so, how much?". If we answer these two questions, then 100% guaranteed we'll know whether He'll want to hear from us and whether He'll be willing to forgive us. Are you with me? If God truly loves us, if God truly forgive us... He MUST love us. There's no other way around it. I have not met yet someone who truly loves a person that would voluntarily ignore, reject or simply dismiss the call of that person when in need. After all, the Bible does give us an insight into what true love is.
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
... and now for the GREAT news... We have had the answers as to whether God loves us or nor for a very long time.
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What kind of love is this?
"Jesus loves you" and "God is love". Two phrases that I would bet the vast majority of the world's population have heard, yet, many (including myself at one point) have failed to truly comprehend the meaning of those words. These words that are often and traditionally repeated have all the meaning in the world for any human that recognizes that there's more to life than what this world offers. To any human experiencing broken-ness, these two phrases, when properly understood, can turn their world upside down. "Jesus love me and you" is not the type of phrase that you'd say to a buddy to just fill-in the blank. My brother, sister, friend... Jesus doesn't just love you, He LOVES you. I think that the love of a mother is the closest thing on planet earth to the love that God has for us... and even so, that love falls way too short.
Along the exact same lines of "Jesus loves you", which is often times mis-stated, we find the phrase "Jesus died for you and me". Another "slogan of the christian community". Another "Jesus 101" course phrase. Embedded in those words, however, is another truth that is often times mis-represented in the mind. In a world where there's so much death and violence around us day in and day out, perhaps the concept of someone dying for someone else is taken lightly. Perhaps there's another reason... what I do know is that what Jesus did is the greatest expression of love that someone could possibly demonstrate.
Ironically for me, the realization that Jesus loves me didn't came after meditating on His death for us all, although it did played a major role. The realization came after reading and truly understanding one of the parables Jesus shared with us and is registered in Matthew... Let's read together:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it..." Matthew 13: 45-46
Simple, yet, very profound words. You see, when you ask the vast majority of christians about the meaning of this verse, of this parable, the answer that comes is almost automatic: "That verse is about us finding the gospel, finding Jesus and leaving everything that we have for Him". "That verse is about what we leave behind to follow Jesus."Maybe you have heard this interpretation and/or believe that's the one. If so, you are right, only in part though. As I studied and researched, I was referred to the book "Christ Object Lessons" by Ellen G. White hand in there the following statement can be read:
"The parable of the merchantman seeking goodly pearls has a double significance: it applies not only to men as seeking the kingdom of heaven, but to Christ as seeking His lost inheritance. Christ, the heavenly merchantman seeking goodly pearls, saw in lost humanity the pearl of price. In man, defiled and ruined by sin, He saw the possibilities of redemption. Hearts that have been the battleground of the conflict with Satan, and that have been rescued by the power of love, are more precious to the Redeemer than are those who have never fallen. God looked upon humanity, not as vile and worthless; He looked upon it in Christ, saw it as it might become through redeeming love. He collected all the riches of the universe, and laid them down in order to buy the pearl." - Christ Object Lessons, chapter 9
What a statement!! Right? After reading this, it all made sense to me. How can the Kingdom of Heaven be solely about what I give for Jesus? No my friend, the Kingdom of Heaven is not solely about what we humans give out for Jesus, but about what Jesus gave away for us, for you. Jesus just didn't came and die to pay a price we were to pay and go back to Heaven, Jesus LOVED US SO MUCH, that he'd rather risk losing EVERYTHING for you, than have everything without you.
"...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God..." - 1 Peter 1:18-21
Before the world was created Jesus saw what would happen, He knew. He saw humanity's fall into sin, he saw Satan overcoming the world, He saw humanity and His own people reject Him and condemn Him to crucifixion, He saw himself sweating blood in affliction and separated from His Heavenly Father without being able to know if His sacrifice was accepted... but He saw a pearl in the marketplace. That pearl my friend, is you. He saw that face of yours and recognized you as His son / daughter; His very special creation. He knew you were precious, he knew that despite you not believing it... you were worth it. Jesus goes to His Father and asks to buy you and the answer came back; to buy that pearl, Jesus was going to have to leave everything He owned, everything He had. Jesus looked at the pearl, looked at you and said: "I'll take it".
The law of God demanded death; "...for the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23). Jesus left His kingdom, His power, His position, EVERYTHING and came down here having nothing risking being separated from God the Father just... for... you.
"Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His..." - Desire of Ages, EGW
I can but wonder... what kind of love is this?
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Still wondering if God hears you and is willing to forgive you?
Friend, brother, sister...
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:35-39
When Satan attempts to make you think that God doesn't hear you and that He won't forgive you, remember that before you came to exist, God loved you so much, that a plan for your salvation was already traced. God is anxiously waiting to hear from you, to be with you, and just like the parable of the lost son (see Luke 15: 11-32), He wants to receive you in His arms. Never forget that. Come to Jesus just as you are, don't wait. All things are made new in Him and find a purpose in Him.
When asking God for forgiveness with an honest heart, KNOW for a FACT that He is merciful and loving to forgive you. When asking God to incline His ear, KNOW for a FACT that He had been listening to you since before you called upon His name. Now I have a final question for you: He gave everything for you... will you give everything for Him?
God bless you in the beautiful name of Jesus my friend and until next one!
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