What is your favorite Bible verse? And why? Mine is John 3:16—”For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This is a verse that I struggled and needed to hear and trust for years, well into my ministry. It is also a word that I have realized so many others have never really believed as well. So often we struggle to believe that God really is full of delight in us, that He is just crazy about us, that our picture is on his heavenly refrigerator door.
Instead, my struggle for years and maybe yours, was a feeling that God was disappointed in me. After all, I never am perfect in life, mistakes happen, sin appears and surely God must wonder about my trust in Him time and time again when those failures show up.
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THE VERSE SAYS! God is not out to get us real good, to hold our sins against us, to be disappointed in us. Jesus came not to reject, not to keep tabs on us, but to SAVE us from all that we need saving from. This verse is just full of reasons for celebration, surprising joy, and freedom to not be bound by our brokenness, but liberated to know acceptance that only the cross of Jesus Christ makes possible. Every time I start down that path of thinking God must have finally given up on me I come back to this verse. It corrects, it affirms, it is truth. And it is why I continue on.
Second favorite verse(s)—the Beatitudes. Get those right and the world is transformed.
Brave Journey,
Bill
Next week—my favorite hymn
