As You Are

“God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” - 1 John 4:9-10 
 
I want you to know something today: if you are a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ, you have a friend. And you don’t just have any friend. You have the best friend anyone could possibly have. You have a friend who has advocated on your behalf (see yesterday’s devotional) and has ACCEPTED YOU AS YOU ARE.

That’s right, Jesus doesn’t need you to change who you are. He isn’t asking you to “be cooler.” You don’t have to raise your status to be with Him. He isn’t saying “dress nicer.” You don’t have to look more appealing to be friends with Him. He isn’t saying “get smarter.” You don’t have to have a certain level of intelligence to be friends with Jesus.  

Nope. None of that. Jesus loves you as you are. Listen, God created you. He designed you to be exactly who you are. And that is enough for Him. He loves you and He accepts you. He accepts you even when you don’t seem to accept yourself.
 
1 John 4:9-10 tells us that He not only accepts us but loves us. It says, “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

Listen, there are a lot of people who don’t give their life to God or have stepped away from their relationship with God because they think they “aren’t good enough.” They think what they have done is too much and that God could never accept them, let alone love them.  

I’m here to tell you, that just isn’t true. Before you were born, He knew exactly who you would be. He knows who you are. He accepts who you are. And He loves who you are!