Have you ever thought about your past? We are often tempted to bring up our mistakes and wrongdoings and to see our life as a broken mess of failures. Like a dusty back road we have traveled from our past leading us to where we currently are. No matter how long we walk it we are always dirty. What person would not feel ashamed when recalling all their sins and faults and realizing they are guilty of each one? Each of us have piles of sins lurking in our history just waiting to ambush us if we let them. In those times, we trick ourselves into feeling unworthy and unlovable because of what we have done. Imperfect and fallen creatures as we are, we are a never ending compilation of disobedient and rebellious acts. In ourselves we have nothing good to bring before our Creator but our sin-stained hands that dishonor him.

Just like a disobedient child who knows they are wrong, we want to turn our face away from the holiness of our God. We don’t want him to look upon us with eyes of disapproval and condemnation. Like a father who shakes his head at his ill-behaved child with a disappointed expression all over his face. We doubt our worth because of what we have done, knowing that we have fallen short of God’s glory and in pleasing him.

But the story of our world does not end there, and more important yet, it is not the one that our Creator desires to paint for us. We were not left in this pitiful, impotent state. At this point where our struggle for self-worth comes sharply into focus, grace burns brighter yet and overpowers the mistakes we have made, our filthiness, our rebellious hearts, our wayward acts, and most of all, our sinful and degenerate nature.

All of our bondage and the chains of our past that bind us so tightly are broken by the blood of Jesus. He has righted our wrongs, he has cleansed us from our shame, he has washed us from our sins, he has lifted us out of the mud we have lived our whole lives in not knowing there was any other way, and he has overcome the power that held us captive for so long in order that we never have to go back to the way we used to be. Such grace is to great to behold. I can barely breathe when the very thought of his love enters my heart. Such love is to great to behold. Many days I sit and wonder at the sacrifice offered by my Savior. Why he would die for me? Why he endure my pain and my punishment when he deserved none?

From amidst the turmoil in my soul desiring to comprehend the infinite love of my Savior, the only answer that seems to ever arise in my heart is a question that leads me back time and time again into his arms – HOW CAN IT BE? But I don’t need to know how, I just need to know why. And the only answer I have is that for some incomprehensible reason we are worth saving. And that reason leaves me wondering – how can it be?…

John 3:16 NLT
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 2:1-2 NRSV
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Hebrews 4:15-16 NRSV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.