We All Fall Short, And That’s Okay!
“[…] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24
I hate messing up. I still remember being in high school and breaking one of my dad’s favorite coffee mugs. Instead of just owning up to the fact that I made a mistake, I frantically drove to Starbucks to try and buy a replica, but alas… they didn’t make the exact same mug anymore, so then I had to tell my dad the truth. My dad is a great dad and he very kindly let me off the hook, but I still can feel the fear and shame I felt trying to fix things on my own.
I think we do the same with God sometimes. We know we’ve sinned, but we’re afraid to come to Him and confess what we’ve done. We act like He doesn’t already know what we did, like His automatic response will be anger and disappointment.
But praise God that is not the case! Romans 3 says that everyone falls short of God’s glory. Because we are human, imperfect and sinful, there’s no way we can every measure up or make ourselves perfect like God. Yet, in His great love, “all are justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Because of Jesus’s death on the cross, we no longer have to be afraid to come to God in our struggles and sin. Do we need to keep on sinning? By no means. But can we go to God, admit our brokenness, and receive His forgiveness, grace, and love? Yes!
It can feel like this truth is too good to be true, but if we spend all of our time trying to clean ourselves up before we come to God, we miss out on the free, beautiful gift of grace He offers us in Christ Jesus.
Whatever your struggle is today, you have grace and forgiveness waiting for you in the loving arms of the Father. Come to Him today and receive this good gift through Jesus Christ.