Good enough?

Sometimes, I engage in conversation with people who think they need to "clean up" before they begin a journey with God. Typically, these are people who have a genuine desire to grow closer to Him but somewhere along the way, their thinking was tainted by a performance-driven paradigm that convinced them that they weren't "good enough" to earn God's grace. The irony is that we are never good enough however God's grace isn't based on what we've done. Instead, His grace is offered freely to people looking for hope and asking for help. If you’re waiting to get your act together before you start following Him and passing that love on to others, you’ll wait forever.

Don’t think for a moment that God uses people who have worked out their spirituality to the place where they’re in a different league than you. The truth is they are more like you than you may want to know, but you need to know it because, by knowing that there are no super saints, you may be more likely to believe that God can use you to advance the cause of His grace in this world and, even more difficult than that these days, in His church.

In Hebrews 11 (called the "faith chapter"), some big Bible characters are listed along with various sins they committed. One important thing to remember, however, is that the sinful things they did were, for the most part, after they had been called by God and began to follow Him. Just like them, we didn't stop sinning when we decided to follow Christ. We may have cut back but our sinning didn't stop.

Feeling unqualified to be in the family of God because of your past? Trust me - He knows your track record and still pursues you with love, grace, and mercy.