Hope For Us Sinners

If you’re anything like me, you’re a sinner in need of a savior. Perhaps you’re a woman needing hope.  

You’re tired of the weight of the burdens you carry, and the oftentimes quiet, and lonely pain that they bring.

Maybe you’ve been trying to do life in your own strength, and it just isn’t working. You need something to change, and fast, because you’re struggling.  

None of us are perfect, and none of us ever will be. But thanks to God’s perfect plan, there is hope for us sinners. 

Holy In His Sight, Without Blemish And Free From Accusation

It’s impossible to imagine that I, so unworthy of God’s love and approval, would ever be seen as holy, or as anything more than a lowly sinner. I know what I’ve done in my life, and I know who I once was.  

As I was praying this morning in my quiet time with God, it occurred to me that he is the only one who truly knows me. More than my mother, more than myself; God knows the things that no one else ever could.  

He is the only one who knows the exact cause of anything that has ever hurt me, and at times he has been the only one to see my suffering. He has seen me through each and every awful situation I’ve experienced, and the choices that I’ve made.  

He knows all of my missteps, and the ins and outs of the broken, ashamed, in desperate need of love and approval, searching in all the wrong places, doing all the wrong things to mask my pain and find my identity- girl I was.  

He also knows my imperfections, my shortcomings and my daily sins. When I think of my old self, and the life that God has given me today, in spite of all he knows about me, and all he’s seen, I cannot bare it.  

That Christ suffered for my sins, and now I have a second chance to walk in obedience and receive God’s daily mercy on my life, is unfathomable. Yet, it moves me and frees me in a way that nothing else can.  

As I have told him, and as I share with you, I am undeserving, but God had a hold on my life, and a plan for me long before I was ever willing to submit my life to him. Long before I truly understood his love for me and who I was in Christ, he was watching out for me, patiently waiting for my surrender.  

I truly say that I am only alive today and born again, sharing the gospel and spreading encouragement, because of the prayers of my mother and the faithfulness of God. He redeems what no one else can.

Once You Were Alienated From God And Were Enemies In Your Minds Because Of Your Evil Behavior

Here’s the good news; God sent us a savior! So no matter what you’ve done in your life, no matter who you once were or who you are today, grace and forgiveness are yours to receive.  

Your deep regrets, your mistakes, your shame, your hurts and the hurts you’ve caused others, do not need to be the final story of who you are. After all, the most powerful and redemptive stories are the ones where the most dire of situations are turned around, and someone is rescued.

And your story can be turned around too.  I know because mine was!  

The Hope Held Out In The Gospel

If you are struggling with sin, and have never given your life to Jesus, but are tired of the shame and guilt that you live with, turn these burdens over to him. Jesus died to release you from these things.   

To the woman who cannot bare to carry it all any longer…

• who is tired, and in desperate need of feeling secure
• who has spent her whole life chasing after things and people, but was ultimately left feeling disappointed and hurt

Please know I am praying for you.  I see you, in fact, I was once was a lot like you.  

If you’re ready to let Jesus in, here is a simple prayer to pray, 

“Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I believe you died for my sins. Please forgive me and come into my heart and my life today. Fill me with your grace and love that I so desperately need. Help me to turn from my sinful ways and become more like you. Lead me in the way I should go.  Thank you Jesus, for saving me. Amen.”

Perhaps you’ve already brought your sin to the Lord, receiving forgiveness. Yet, you continue to live with deep guilt and shame over a choice, or a circumstance where you failed to do what was right.  Friend, he took your wrath so you wouldn’t have to, so why do you continue to live in bondage to that which you’ve been forgiven for?  

Here is a prayer for you when you are tired of carrying the burden…

“Dear God, Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for me so that I would not have to face the wrath I deserve. Please forgive me for living my life as if I haven’t already been forgiven.  Please take the burdens that I carry, and the shame and guilt that I feel, and release me from them today. Help me to fully surrender my life to you, so that I can walk more freely in your grace and love.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

When we fully surrender our lives to God, we can more easily lean into the grace that he has already given us through his son. Through this grace, there is freedom, and the chance at a life made new, wiped clean by the blood of Jesus.  

God has reconciled us to him, through Jesus’s death on the cross. Once we have accepted him as our savior, we must cling to, and stand firmly on the hope that we have received in the gospel. Through that, freedom is found.  

That my friend, is the hope that we have as sinners. To God be the glory, we are saved and set free by a loving God who loves and pursues us, in spite of ourselves. 

Colossians 1:15-23

The Supremacy of the Son of God

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.