God Is Not Mad at You: You Can Experience Real Love, Acceptance & Guilt-free Living (23 page)

Fear of anger causes us to run from the one we imagine is angry with us. It puts a wall of separation between us, but God never says, “Run from Me”; He always says, “Come to Me.” How glorious is that invitation? The God of the Universe, the Almighty, the Beginning and the End, the Author and the Finisher of all things gives an invitation to all… “Come to Me.”

Whatever condition you may find yourself in today or any other day of your life, God’s invitation is “Come!” His invitation does not require us to be in any particular condition to meet with Him. If we have been good or bad, happy or sad, glad or mad, the invitation is still simply “come.” We can come as often as we desire, and we will never find the door closed or God not at home. Fortunately, when we call Him, His line is never busy.

I was afraid of my father’s anger during my childhood, and I remember hiding from him any time that I could. I purposely avoided being in the same room with him whenever possible. His presence made me tense and uncomfortable and I hated that feeling. I could not relax or enjoy anything. When I had a need, I always asked my mother for help instead of my dad, or I tried to
take care of it myself before going to my dad. I even did without many things rather than ask for his help. Fortunately, our heavenly Father is not like many earthly fathers or other people that we deal with in life. He is always ready to help all of those who will simply “come.”

Are you doing without things that you need and desire because you are afraid to draw near to God and simply ask for His help? Perhaps you feel that you don’t deserve His help, and the truth is that you don’t. None of us do, but He offers it anyway. He helps us because He is good, not because we are good.

When a child is hurt, the first thing he does is run to Mom or Dad as fast as he can, and if he can’t run, he cries until help comes. A child doesn’t worry about the last time he was bad, or whether he deserves Mom and Dad’s help. He just has a need and automatically runs to the one who can meet it. We should learn to be the same way. A child who has a good relationship with his parents never outgrows this desire to run to Mom or Dad when life hurts. My grown children, who range in age from thirty-two to forty-six years, still do it, and I am honored that they do. Could you imagine saying to one of your children, “Don’t run to me when you’re hurting. I am mad at you because you haven’t been good.” That sounds ridiculous and we know we would never do that, so how can we ever think that God would?

Jesus said, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!” (John 7:37). What an open invitation! If we have any need, we may simply come to Him and have our thirst quenched. It seems that the only requirement for approaching God is to be needy. Jesus promises to never cast out anyone who comes to Him.

Wow! How different my life would have been had I been able to have that confidence in my earthly father. I did not have that privilege, just as many of you did not, but fortunately, we have a Father we can go to now with the promise of never being rejected. A Father Who is far better than even the best earthly father in the world.

Life is not always as kind to us as we would like it to be. People hurt us, circumstances disappoint us and until we learn how to enter God’s rest, we frequently feel weary. Here is an open invitation from Jesus:

Anyone may simply come. To do so requires no special talent. We just need to be ready to say we need help and then humble ourselves and come to God’s throne of grace and receive by faith the help and comfort that we need.

Jesus goes on to say in succeeding verses that He is humble, gentle, meek and lowly; not harsh or hard or sharp or pressing.
He is making sure that we understand His nature. He is a Helper who delights in lifting His people up. When the prodigal son returned home in Luke 15, his father was delighted. He had no attitude of “I told you so.” He didn’t say, “I knew you would waste your fortune and come crawling back to me for help.” Rather, he saw his son a long way off and ran to him. I love the mental picture this story provides.

The son decided to come home to his father, and when he did he was met with favor and unprecedented goodness. His father embraced him and kissed him. He ordered that the best robe be brought for his son. In fact, it was the festive robe of honor that was put on him. He received a ring, sandals and a feast.

It would seem that the prodigal who wasted his father’s money and embarrassed him by living a sinful life deserved punishment, not a party, but God is good even when we are not!

Perhaps you walked away from God at some time in your life and even though you have come back, you have never been totally comfortable. You wonder if God is angry with you, and that fear keeps you from totally entering into His presence and living the life He wants you to live. If so, then please believe that you don’t have to sacrifice your future in order to pay for your past! Jesus has already paid, and it was payment in full. There is
no fee that you have to pay to go to God’s party. After all, it is being given in your honor, so it would be a shame if you didn’t show up.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the words stamped largely across your life: PAID IN FULL. God’s Word tells us that we have been bought with a price, with the precious blood of Christ. We owe no debt because all of our sins have been paid for, past, present and future. It feels good to not be in debt! Go ahead and feel the freedom… no debt! Does it seem too good to be true? Of course it does, but I urge you to believe it anyway. Take God at His word and enjoy His presence.

I am sure the prodigal son was humbled by his father’s extreme goodness, but he did receive it and he enjoyed it. It would have made his father sad had he refused to accept his goodness. Love always wants to give and can only be satisfied by having someone who is willing to receive! Ask and receive that your joy may be full (John 16:24).

When we learn to come to Jesus, we can also learn to live a life of rest instead of weariness and struggle. We come to Him in faith, believing that His promises are true and it is the open door to entering His rest.

God’s rest is not a rest
from
work, but
in
work. It is a rest that we live with as we tend to the duties of life. We trust, we don’t worry; we are not anxious, we cast our care and we wait on God. We do what we can do, but we never try to do what we cannot do, for that is what wears us out. It isn’t that we are not tempted to
try to do such things, but we choose not to. We eventually learn to take life one day at a time, and we partner with the Holy Spirit in living each day fully.

Have you entered God’s rest? If not, all you have to do is “come,” and like a small child, simply believe!

God often says the same thing in a couple of different ways just to make sure we understand it. He gives the invitation to “come,” and He also invites us to “draw near.” I suppose we could come and still stand off at a distance, but to draw near speaks of intimacy, and that is God’s will for us in our relationship with Him.

We have a High Priest who understands our weaknesses. Jesus was tempted in all respects as we are, and although He never sinned, He does understand (Hebrews 4:15). He understands and He gives an invitation to draw near.

We can see from this single Scripture that it is God’s will that we fearlessly run to Him, not from Him. Distance is a relationship killer. We weren’t made to serve the Lord cowering in the distance; we were made to live in a love relationship with Him. Up close and personal!

The invitation is for us to “draw near.” The way has been opened up for us to go in and out freely.

St. Augustine said, “Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself, but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.”

I believe that many people are desperate for the message in this book. They want to believe that God is not mad at them and they are welcome to draw near. An anecdote from Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Capital of the World” drives the point home.

There are countless people who desperately want to know that God is not mad at them and that all is forgiven. God cannot
do anything else other than what He has already done. We must now take Him up on His kind invitation to “draw near” and receive the help and healing that we need. The fire of God’s love will always burn brightly, but it is up to us whether we are warm or cold. “Come,” and warm yourself by the fire of God’s unconditional love.

There are those who draw back and remain in eternal misery because they don’t believe that they can draw near. I was one of those people for a long time. Daily, something would separate me from God, but it was deception on my part that allowed it to be that way. God’s invitation was open for me to draw near, yet I drew back due to fear of facing Him as I was. The awareness of our imperfections causes us to draw back.

Dave and I have four grown children and at different times each of them has pondered why it is still so important to them even as adults that they please us. I have watched one son plan a trip for us and be a little nervous the entire trip that something wouldn’t go right for me and his dad and that we would be disappointed in him. It took years to convince him that all we expected was for him to do his best and that if something went wrong, we would not get angry with him.

One of my daughters has discussed with me her need for our approval even though she is a grown woman with children of her own. I think it is a very natural thing to want to please your parents. I found myself trying to do it as a sixty-year-old woman, and my parents and I didn’t even have a close relationship. My mom is in a nursing home and I take care of her, but I have found that when she is unhappy about anything, I have to resist
thinking that I need to keep her happy all the time. I am committed to meeting her valid needs, but her joy is her responsibility, not mine. I know that I don’t need her approval, but something in me still wants it. If we feel that way with imperfect parents, how much more will we feel that way with God? We want to please Him. We want His approval and we must understand that we have it as a gift through our faith in Jesus Christ.

If we continue trying to earn God’s approval by our own deeds of goodness, we will always have something separating us from Him. But if we come to Him by faith alone, trusting in His goodness, then we find an open-door policy and the freedom to enter in at any time.

I keep a sign sitting on a table in my office that says in big bold letters, BELIEVE. I do it to remind myself that is what God wants from me. He wants me to trust Him, place my faith in Him, and believe His Word. When we wholeheartedly believe, it leads us to obedience.

You might say that the password into God’s presence is I BELIEVE. Don’t let the fear of your own imperfections keep you out of God’s presence any longer. Run to Him, not away from Him. He has everything we need and offers it freely to those who will “come.”

Although we know that all manner of sin can be forgiven and there is no amount of sin that can prevent us from having a wonderful relationship with God, we do still have to deal with our sin. What shall we do about it? What should our attitude be toward it? I believe we must hate it just as God does, and that we must resist it steadfastly in the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be filled with God’s Spirit and ever be satisfied with a life of sin. Although we should hate sin, we should never hate ourselves because we sin. God hates sin, but He loves sinners!