How do you see God when you’ve messed up?

Do you expect Him to be disappointed, distant, or waiting for you to do better? Or do you believe He moves toward you with grace?

The way we see God shapes the way we relate to Him. And when we look at Scripture, we see a God whose grace moves toward us.

Grace Moves Toward Us

Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 gives us a powerful picture of the Father’s heart.

When the younger son returns home after walking away, his father doesn’t stand back and make him prove himself. He runs to meet him, embraces him, and welcomes him home.

That’s the kind of Father Jesus is revealing to us. God’s grace moves toward us.

Romans 5:8 says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for us to become good enough before demonstrate His love for us. He demonstrated His love for us at our worst.

Grace isn’t God reluctantly accepting us after we’ve cleaned ourselves up. Grace is God moving toward us with a love we could never earn.

Grace Changes Us

Grace is more than forgiveness. Grace changes the way we live.

Titus 2:11–12 says that God’s grace has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, and that grace teaches us to turn away from ungodliness and live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.

Grace doesn’t mean, “God loves me, so I can live however I want.”

Grace teaches us a new way to live. We don’t obey God to earn His love. We obey because we have received His love.

When our relationship with God is built on performance, obedience can become exhausting. We’re always wondering if we’ve done enough, prayed enough, confessed enough, or been good enough.

But when we understand God’s grace, obedience becomes a response to the love we’ve already received.

See God as He Is

I believe one of the most important things we can do in our relationship with God is allow Scripture to continually shape our understanding of who He is.

If your view of God has been shaped by fear, failure, disappointment, or painful experiences with people, bring that view back to Scripture.

Look at Jesus.

Look at the Father’s heart.

Look at the grace that moves toward sinners, brings salvation, and teaches us to live differently.

God is good.

And when we begin to see Him as He truly is, we can stop living like slaves trying to earn His approval and begin living like sons and daughters who know they’re loved.

That’s where grace leads us: not just to a better opinion of God, but to a transformed relationship with Him.