In the church we often times allow guilt and shame to keep us from the fullness of what God promised us. But when we feel we don’t have it all together we just stay out of church and say things like I’m not going to be a hypocrite I’m just gonna get myself together and then go back. And part of that feeling is warranted but there is another part that isn’t. No you should not just be okay with living your life any kind of way and then running up in the house of God as if you’ve been with God all week long, that conviction is a good thing because the moment you feel that you can do anything you want live any kind of way you want is the moment you put yourself in a position of self-deception.

Self-deception is where you begin to create a mental picture that doesn’t exist. There is an illusion that you are going in one direction and in actuality you’re going in the complete opposite. Self-deception is a dangerous thing because it hinders your rationale or your ability to properly discern where you are. But the flip side of this entire thing is no you shouldn’t be alright with going into God’s presence any kind of way but at the same time when you are messed up and don’t know what to do or you know what to do but just haven’t made the decision to do it the best place to be is in the presence of the Lord. There you will find the conviction you need the encouragement you need the passion you need to get back on fire for God.

Now I am writing to an audience that has developed a heart for God and has come to know him as their Lord and Savior but if you are reading this and you are not saved and haven’t experienced the grace of God in your life then this message is for you. Get to know God for yourself and once you’ve experienced him I don’t care how much dirt you come out of he will wash you and make you clean and even if you find yourself in a place where you fall back into the thing that you fight so adamantly to be free from keep going back to God. This keeps your heart in a place of humility before God. Many in Christ have had to go back to him for restoration even after being saved and if truth be told as long as we live we will need His presence in one way or another. Maybe not for the same thing but in some way we will need him and this is where God wants us to be on our knees humbled before him with the realization that without him we are nothing and with him we are everything. Before I let you go please remember as you pursue God as you are, you don’t have to be in a church building to find God, He is everywhere just talk to him right now wherever you are. He’ll show you the way, he’ll take all your sins and give you his grace.