“God is always disappointed with me.”

 

It’s the mumbled sentiment of many who aspire to a higher, wiser life. We know our failings far too well: we tell half-truths or flat-out lies; we use our power to dominate the weak; we abuse our bodies, as if they really were our own.

 

And we assume that God is always studying the gap between His law and our performance. Even on our best days, we don’t reach our own half-hearted expectations, never mind His call to holy living. And so we think our failings keep Him at long distance—continually frustrated with us.

 

But the gospel says God loves us differently. “ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19). Even when we lapse into our habits of shame and self-loathing, His attitude toward us remains unchanged: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

 

“By grace”—by God’s unyielding affection for you—"you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).

 

You cannot earn the Father’s love. You cannot lose the Father’s love.

 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott