It’s no secret that the world has become incredibly complex and confusing. This is because most of its inhabitants have moved further away from God rather than closer to Him. Although our intelligence and technological advances are a marvel, the level of evil that we are capable of is more alarming than words can express. The pace of life in these modern times has accelerated beyond what any of us ever imagined, and most are finding it hard to keep up. We must remember that God knows everything. He knew that we would come to this place, and that many of us would not depend on His peace and comfort. We can be confident that God wants to comfort us. He wants our hearts to be flooded with His peace, and He extends an invitation for us to come to Him as we are.
God’s throne
Romans 8:16(NLT) says, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we become God’s children and we receive His Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes to live inside our human spirit, and the Spirit affirms and declares to us inwardly that we are God’s children. Hebrews 2:14(NLT) teaches us, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.” Our Heavenly Father gave us this victory through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only begotten. We must demonstrate our gratitude to God daily, because we have sonship in Christ, and we will never see hell because of what God has done for us.
It is very important to Him that we know who He is, and it is only by knowing who God is that we can know who we are. God wants us to learn of His omnipotence, magnificence, intelligence, and His unlimited and unconditional love. He is our Creator and His residence is heaven. Because heaven is the home of our Heavenly Father, it is our home as well. Although we live on earth, we must never forget that we are citizens of heaven. This means that you and I have access to God’s throne. Hebrews 4:16(NLT) tells us, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Accept His invitation
The truth is that we can come to God as we are. We don’t have to wear certain clothes or shoes, and we don’t have to be perfect or know everything about the Bible. We can come boldly before God’s throne because we know Jesus Christ as Lord, and we can have faith that God is willing and able to help us in our time of need. He knows that life on earth is challenging, and in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus Christ invites us to come to him with all our burdens, and he will provide rest for our weary souls. We desperately need to accept God’s help through Jesus Christ. Our Heavenly Father created us to be His family, and He never wanted us to live life apart from Him. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. He wants us to involve Him in all the decisions and choices we make. He instructs us in Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT) to “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
God wants a relationship with everyone. 1Timothy 2:4(NLT) tells us that He wants “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” This dog-eat-dog world teaches us that everything is based on our efforts to be popular, rich, and beautiful according to its standards. The world wants us to look, behave, and think like everyone else does, but God has called us out from among the world. 2Corinthians 5:21(NLT) says “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Jesus Christ gave his life to save us because we desperately needed salvation. We could not and cannot make ourselves righteous. God tells us to come to Him and give Him our whole lives. He will transform us. It’s not about what we can do. It’s about what He will do in us when we surrender our lives to Him.
You have probably heard many teachings about how to approach God. Some of these might have intimidated you and made you feel that you can’t go to God because you have sinned and done wrong. All of us feel unworthy, but God doesn’t want us feeling that way because He has made us worthy through Christ! Jesus died on the cross for everyone, not just for a select few. He gave his life as a sacrifice for those who love and know God and for those who do not. We are imperfect, but we are being perfected in Christ as we allow God to work in us. He said in 2Corinthians 12:9(NLT) “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” This is the confidence we can have as we approach God. He loves us. He always wants to help us and we can come to Him as we are. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Come As You Are”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.