God Wants You Just As You Are- Lavish Day 19

Jesus wants all of you. Your whole self. Where you are right now. Just the place that you are.

I know you’ve tried so hard to be good, and tried so hard to swallow everything that makes you, you. I know you’ve tried to be like the other people that God seems to love. The perfect ones, the prim and proper ones, the ones who have perfect lives, perfect hair and perfect families. The ones who write all the cutesy captions on Instagram about how much they love God and the million and one things that he’s telling them. And then there’s you. Falling into the same sin you’ve vowed not to go back to so many times, constantly plagued with anxious thoughts, feeling like you don’t matter, feeling like your prayers hit a brick wall everytime you say them, feeling like Jesus loves everybody but you. Only you knows how much you’ve tried. Only you knows the depth of effort you’ve put in. You’ve tried everything. Starved yourself, deleted all your social media applications and accounts, locked yourself up to seek God. Yet, nothing. It seems like you’re just walking in circles. So you’ve given up. You’ve stopped trying. This song is for you. Jesus sees you. “Let’s start again” He says. Come my beloved one. Try again, this time with me.❤️ 

I know they’ve told you about a God who is only full of love when you’re new to the faith- “a babe in Christ”, but has only wrath and discipline for the ones who have believed Him for longer. The ones who should be feasting on the meat of the word. They’ve told you about a God who has no patience for your mistakes once you’re in the fold of his flock. You’re part of the 99, so you shouldn’t stress him like the 1. They’ve told you about a God who is unhappy with you because you still can’t pray in tongues for hours and your mind still wanders while you pray. You don’t even know all the Hebrew phrases yet and you haven’t read all the books by the great evangelists and apostles. You wonder if you’re even growing in Christ. You still struggle to believe that His promises will come true, that He loves you, that he’s not disappointed in you because you don’t know how to receive words of knowledge or you’re too shy to preach in public. It’s been a while since you accepted Christ now and you don’t even know where you are any longer. You can’t tell anybody because nobody is going to understand. You opened up once and only got scriptures flung at you. So you pretend. Every Sunday you go to church and make sure you scream the loudest hallelujah. You belt out the lyrics of the worship songs to drown the doubts rising in your heart. You ensure you post the verse of the day from YouVersion across all your social media. You’re crying out for help but nobody sees it. Everybody expects a standard of perfection you’re not sure how to meet. And God? You don’t even remember the last time you properly spoke to Him. You’re too scared to face Him, He’s most likely really mad at you. You’ve come too far in your walk with God to still be struggling this way.

Jesus sees you. He says “You don’t have to be perfect for me. I want to help you. I want you to delight in me. The standards you’ve set for yourself, they’re not really from me. It’s okay to be yourself and it’s okay to need my help. Growth is a process and I don’t compare you to anybody else. Come to me.” This song is for you.

And to you, weary heart. God sees you. You believed the prophecy, held onto the promise and yet it still didn’t work out. So you don’t know what to do with all your shattered hope. The faith you tried so hard to build has crumbled. You don’t know why God would let something like this happen to you. You don’t understand why He has suddenly gone silent on you. You’ve swallowed your doubts, swallowed your questions, you’re not sure how to keep on believing a God who let you down. God says, “I want you to know that you can talk to me about exactly how you feel and ask me all the questions on your heart. My ways are not your ways, yet when you spend time with me, you will begin to see as I see and understand that everything eventually makes sense. Right now you may not understand, but stick with me and you will laugh again. Talk to me beloved.” This song is for you.

This letter is for you- whatever it is that you’re going through. Lonely, depressed, addicted, exhausted, divorced, heartbroken, joyful, excited, sad, tired, confused. Wherever you are. Whoever you are. Good or bad. Mountain hIgh or valley deep.”I love you”, says Jesus. “Just talk to me. Let’s start with a conversation.”