I don’t know what your “anyway” is, but God pours His grace all over it. I don’ know what your past is like, but God has poured His grace all over that, too. Same thing with your sinful behavior and thought patterns. God has tossed us headlong into His ocean of grace.

If you’re anything like me, this is the best news you’ll ever hear.

I have plenty of baggage in my past–things I wish I hadn’t done or said, but I can’t undo or unsay them. And even though I feel like God has helped me grow and made me a better person, I am, unfortunately, still shocked sometimes by something I do or say or think. I get so disappointed in myself and wonder how I can ever think I’ve grown at all. I’ve failed God, or maybe God has failed me.

Maybe this is you, too, my friend?

But here’s the thing: this is shame. And it is the tool of the evil one, who would do anything to separate us from God.

But, thankfully, God has done everything to bring us back into His arms. The moment we ask for forgiveness, He picks us up, dunks us into His river of mercy to wash off the filth, and sends us on our way (but not before reminding us to go forth and sin no more, even while knowing that won’t be possible for us).

The Bible is God’s love letter to you and to me. Here’s one of the reasons I believe that to be true: because He shows by one example after another that He loves us anyway. Here are just a few:

• God still loved Adam and Eve, even after they deliberately disobeyed a directive from God because they had believed Satan’s lies.
• God still loved Moses, even after he killed a man and despite Moses telling God he didn’t want the assignment God had for him.
• God still loved David, even after he committed adultery and then had that woman’s (Bathsheba’s) husband killed to try to cover it up.
• God (in the form of Jesus) still loved the Samaritan woman at the well, even though she had cast aside 5 husbands and was not married to the man she was currently living with.
• God (Jesus) still loved Peter, even after Peter swore that he didn’t know Jesus because he was afraid for his life.
• God (Jesus) still loved Thomas, even after Thomas doubted that Jesus had really been rasied to life after His execution.
• God (Jesus) still love Paul, even after Saul (Paul) had tried to eradicate His church by persecuting His followers.

So, you see, it doesn’t matter what your or my “anyway” is. God loves you no matter what, and He loves me despite all the ways I’ve let Him down. For that, I am and will be forever grateful.

How about you?