When you meet someone for the first time, what do you see? Certain physical characteristics about them such as hair color, body type, or gender may stand out to you, but could you say at this point that you know this person? Of course not.
That is because the heart of a person is the center of who they are, and you must be willing to spend the time it will take to experience them on a more personal level in order to really know them. Its called relationship. That is what God wants to have with you. Its the reason He sent Jesus, His son, to earth. Our sin is what keeps us from having this relationship with God the Father, but Jesus came to take our sin and shame upon Himself. He paid the price we could not pay and to make a way for us to know, (not just be acquainted with) Him.
Some people do not have a problem with the reality of sin. They know deep down and agree with God’s word, that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick: who can understand it?” Jeramiah 17:9 (NAS). They may have trouble believing that a Holy God would even want to have a relationship with them, though they deeply desire for it to happen. Well, if this describes your struggle, then please listen carefully. There is NO sin that was not covered by the Savior’s shed blood on the cross. “For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”(1Peter3:18). It doesn’t matter what others think they see in you. If you want to walk closely with God, He knows your heart, and He wants to make it happen. When you come to Him, He won’t be meeting you for the first time. There will be no surprises. He made you, remember? He’s been waiting to show you how much He has always loved you. He desires for you to walk closely with Him.
Just as in Samual 16:6-7 (NAS), when the prophet Samuel came to Jesse the Bethlehemite to pick from his sons a new king for Israel; and when Samual saw Jesse’s son Elaib he thought, “Surely the Lord’s annointed is before Him”. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God had not chosen the man who looked most suited for the job, He chose instead, the youngest son of Jesse, a brave shepherd boy who was not the most highly esteemed of all his siblings. But God would later call this boy who walked closely with Him a “man after God’s own heart.” (Acts 13;22). By faith, this boy saved the nation of Israel by slaying a giant with just a slingshot. This boy was to become King David. If you look into the life of King David, he wasn’t perfect, but David returned to the Lord when he sinned, and the Lord knew his heart and received him back, and blessed him.
God wants to make Himself known to every heart that will accept His love through the sacrafice of His own son. You can walk closely to God, if only you make it your heart’s desire, and only God knows the heart that desires Him in this way. If you have not taken the first step, why not tell Jesus you are turning away from the sin that has kept you from walking closely with God? Accept Jesus’ death on the cross as the payment in full for your sin and begin your walk with Him right now. If you are a believer already, and struggle with believing that God could love or desire you, decide to believe what the God who made you says; “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16 (NAS) You have everything to gain in doing so.
