By Nathan Meeuwenberg 04.21.14

Over these past few weeks, I’ve noticed people struggling with their identity in Christ.

 

Their default position, as a struggler, is that God is disappointed and He just tolerates them on a day-to-day basis. They believe that they deserve all the guilt, all the shame and all the consequences of their sin.

 

In my life, I remember times where I question every essence of God. I question why God would save me. I don’t understand why God would want to adopt me into his family. These last few weeks I’ve wrestled with that notion. Does God actually love me?

 

Last week, I realized through talking with people that I’m not alone in the struggle of believing God loves us. I recently read a verse that caught me by surprise.

 

Ephesians 1:4 says:

“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”

 

In difficult days – days where things just don’t seem to go your way – God never abandons you. God has chosen you before the foundation of the world. God looks at you and sees you as holy and without blame.

 

How amazing does that make our God? In all of our hypocrisy, all of our obvious sin and our conscience sin, God is long suffering with us! In our inability to accomplish all that He has planned for us, He still lavishes upon us his grace!

 

Ephesians 1:7-8 continues:

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.”

 

It’s clear that God doesn’t just simply give us our needed portion of grace, but God lavishes us with grace. God pours uncontrollable amounts of grace on our lives.

 

Let me make this very clear: God does not regret saving you! Every sin that anyone has ever done in this world has not surprised God. Even your own sin has not surprised God. God knew you were going to sin and still decided to save you! God is not watching you this week, watching you struggle and slog through your sin while regretting that He decided to pay the price in full for your transgressions. You have no sin, past, present, or future that has more power than the cross of Jesus Christ.

 

I want to tell you this: Christ loves you more than any of us can imagine. His love is indescribable. This seems like a simple concept, but rest assured this will flip your life, this college and this world upside down.