Daily Reading
Come Boldly
Today's Daily Reading is from Stasi's new book The Ladder of Love, releasing on October 6 — pre-order your copy today!
The wonderful news is that it is God who seeks us, offers us His Living Water, and He will never turn His face away from anyone who comes to Him honestly. Jesus is safe for us to bring the whole truth of who we’ve been, what we’ve done, what we’ve suffered, what we’ve lost, what we long for, and who we are in the moment we find ourselves in. All of it.
Religious pharisaism, the religious spirit, says you cannot approach God freely. You cannot come before Him with your messy, bedraggled self. Clean yourself up first, but by all means keep your distance.
Many of us have heard the same message that we are not worthy to approach our holy God. We sing songs that name us wretches. We hear sermons reminding us of our depravity and sin. We are sometimes diminished as women from the pulpit regarding both our femininity and form. Instead of being encouraged by lavish grace and the boundless love of God, we are sometimes shamed by our fallen humanity. How could this holy God of the Cosmos who fills us with awe and wonder even want anything to do with us? We need to keep our distance. We are ashamed. We know our secret failings. I sure do!
But that is not the gospel.
That is certainly not good news.
That is not what God says.
Our holy God not only invites us to come close to Him, but He urges us to come into His throne room boldly, without fear. “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. Therewe will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:16 nlt).
The Scriptures tell us that we are no longer merely sinners saved by grace but saints who are now righteous before God’s eyes, possessing the very same beauty as Jesus. We are “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (Colossians 3:12).
It’s time to take hold of the reality that we are seen in our fullness and loved in totality now. Right this very minute. Yes, we sin. Yes, we who are holy are being made holy (Hebrews 10:10). Yes, we live in the mystery of the “already and not yet.” But we are not meant to live in the “not yet”; we are meant to embrace the “already” and marinate our hearts in the truth of how our God sees us.
He is proud to call us His own. “You are mine,” He says (Isaiah 43:1).