The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

by Jared C. Wilson

God is not expecting us to muster up happiness in him from the void of some nebulous religious inclinations, from the black hole of our empty emotional reservoir. He puts the joy inside of us that he demands from us. What grace! “These things I have spoken to you,” Jesus says, “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

I spent thirty years fighting a war that was over, struggling to believe God could love me, struggling to believe God could even stomach me, warring with the devil over where I belonged, warring with myself over where I stood. So many of the sinful patterns that plagued my life for so long arose from the mistaken belief that my soul was in some kind of spiritual limbo.

You are not your ability to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You are not the sum of your spiritual accomplishments and religious devotion. You are a great sinner, yes. But you have a great Savior. Child of God, you are a child of God. And he will never, ever, ever leave you or forsake you.