Do you have a hard time trusting God? What do you think about when you look at the cross? Do you think of suffering? Do you think of the pain Jesus went through? Do you ever feel that you are not worthy? That you are too imperfect to be loved? Do you start to feel guilty for the things you have done? For the things you haven’t done? Do you feel as if no one will ever forgive you the horrible things you have done? If so, you are not alone. Often times I am overwhelmed by guilt. Guilt over my mistakes. Guilt over my attitude. Guilt over my lack of faith and trust in God. Guilt over my selfishness. Guilt over my laziness. Guilt over how I treat people, judge people, hurt people, ignore people. Guilt over pretty much everything. And I can tell you that the guilt will get heavier and heavier, continuing to weigh you down, until you are completely paralyzed and cannot move at all. To the point where you feel imprisoned by your burdens and your past and all of the negative thoughts that enter your mind. But the story doesn’t have to end there…….no matter how difficult things have been for you…THERE IS HOPE….THERE IS GOOD NEWS! AND THE GOOD NEWS COMES IN THE UNDERSTANDING THAT GOD LOVES US, ALL OF US, UNCONDITIONALLY, NO MATTER WHAT WE HAVE DONE, NO MATTER WHERE WE HAVE BEEN, AND NOT MATTER WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN OUR PAST.

And you know how we can trust that this love is true, that this love is really unconditional? All you have to do is look at the cross. A cross that would bear the burdens of our past mistakes….our future mistakes…and of all of our sins. It is through the cross that we see real unconditional love, a true love that never goes away. A love so strong that no sin can break it. For it was through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, through the unimaginable pain he suffered as nails were hammered through his feet and wrists, that God proved to us that he was willing to sacrifice his one and only son so that he could have a personal relationship with us. Think about that…..he let Jesus. his son, bare the burdens of our actions, of our past, of our sins….and not just your sins…..of the entire world’s sins. So when you doubt that you are worthy or your doubt that you are loved, simply look at the cross and remember that no matter what you have done in the past, no matter how imperfect you think you are, no matter how many mistakes you have made, you are forgiven and nothing can prevent God from loving you unconditionally. The proof is Jesus.

Now that you know God loves you unconditionally, that he doesn’t not want anything bad to happen to you, it is time to TRUST him….time to have FAITH in him. Once you do this, you can fight back, you can pull yourself up out of the abyss, out of the quicksand and you no longer have to try to do it alone. Just stretch out your hand and God will take it. He will give you the strength to get up, to break your chains and to free yourself from your burdens. You are no longer beholden to your past, you are no longer chained down by your sins, you have a new freedom that comes with knowing you are loved by the one true God, the God that created the heavens and the earth, the universe, the God that can do all things, but still loves us so much that he took the time to design every hair on our head, and that he always waits for us with hand stretched out to help.