Some people are just hard to love. We know that – but what if you’re one of them without realizing it. What if you’ve become hard to love? You pull away. You put your walls up. You self-protect. You pretend. You hide. You keep everything surface level and superficial.

And even worse – you do this with God. Girl, YOU WON’T LET GOD LOVE YOU.

And here’s why – you feel unworthy.

All your life you’ve been certain that if people really knew you they wouldn’t love you, and you know you can’t hide anything from God. He knows it all, so surely he doesn’t really love you. Not all of you. So, you’ve become hard to love. You push God away without even realizing it. You keep him at a distance so he doesn’t get too close. You put those walls up. You check boxes to be “good enough” but that heart of yours is highly protected.

Oh how God wants to tear down those walls around your heart and bombard you with his love. Oh how he wants to lead you into a true relationship with him that reveals who he really is, and who you really are to him.

Will you let God love you?

Yes, while you’re unworthy. While you’re still a little messy. While things still aren’t right and you still have questions. Will you just consent to being loved by God exactly as you are, where you are – fully, thoroughly, wholly, completely, perfectly. While you are still unworthy, God wants to love you perfectly.

This week we’re studying Romans chapter 5. Romans is my absolute favorite book in the entire Bible, and chapter 5 is perhaps the most simple, literal and powerful explanation of our salvation. If you don’t know where to start, start there. If everything else confuses you, just believe this.

Today, let’s read the first 2 verses. Romans 5: 1-2, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

Your faith in Jesus makes you RIGHT in God’s sight. Jesus has made you worthy. Even while you’re still wrong, even while you still feel unworthy, God looks at you and sees you as completely covered, forgiven, justified and whole. You are perfectly lovable to him in every way.

It’s an absolute work of the enemy to make you think and feel anything else. It’s easy to label it as humble and walk around feeling unworthy, but the truth is, that’s a work of Satan. Stop welcoming that. Stop partnering with the devil in deciding you’re inadequate. That’s absolutely nonsense. But it’s nonsense you’ve been hearing your entire life, so you’ve believed it as your truth. But Sis, when your truth doesn’t align with THE TRUTH, then your truth is UNtruth. It’s a lie. Satan is the father of lies and some of his lies have gotten into your head and heart as your truth.

Right now, pray with me: Lord, I release all of my truths to you. Everything I believe and everything I say about myself, I lay them out for you to examine. If any of my accepted and believed truths are not THE TRUTH from you, please shine your light so I am no longer fooled by the lies of the enemy. I want THE TRUTH in everything you say about me.

Now, look where this truth leads us – it leads us to PEACE WITH GOD. “We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” We often talk about the peace OF God. That feeling of calm within even when circumstances are uncertain or unfavorable. That’s the peace OF God. But, what is this peace WITH God?

This is actually a legal issue. Sin has sentenced us as guilty. We haven’t met the standards. We haven’t fulfilled the laws. We haven’t been good enough. We’ve fallen short and deserving of a God who is against us. But instead, we have a God who is FOR US. A God who stopped at absolutely nothing to save us. A God who gave his absolute best to make us right again. And because of Jesus, we have not only the peace of God, but we have peace WITH God.

He’s not mad at you. God is not the gray haired old man with angry eyebrows, sitting on a throne with a big stick, ready to strike you. He’s not looking down, shaking his head at you in disapproval. He’s not conjuring up ways to punish you. Quite the opposite! He’s at complete peace with you. He looks at you with Fatherly love for his precious girl and he wants nothing more than a relationship with you. He wants to draw you near. He wants to bless you. He wants to share his joy with you.

I don’t know about you, but no one ever told me that. I was afraid of God. I was so consumed with trying to perform to please him or impress him so that maybe he would bless me, that I completely missed the fact that he already wanted to bless me without the show. When I prayed, it wasn’t because I was seeking a relationship with God, it was to try and make peace with a God who must have been disappointed with me.

And now I see, gosh, I was hard to love. All this time, all I had to do was let God love me.

Is that you too? Have you been missing the fact that God did all the heavy lifting for you? There are no hurdles for you to jump or boxes for you to check – No, just a surrender to be loved by a God who makes you enough. A God who speaks the truth about you. A God who loves you endlessly and wildly. All that’s left for you to do is just let yourself be loved by Him.

Verse 2 says, “Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of UNDESERVED PRIVILEGE where we now stand.” Nope, you don’t deserve it, but it’s yours anyway. Privilege is yours.

The meaning of undeserved privilege is: An unearned benefit received due to your identity rather than your effort.

It all comes back to our identity. If you don’t know who you are in Christ, then you forfeit these truths and subject yourself to twisted lies. You forfeit your peace with God and instead you feel unworthy, unseen and unloved. And we’re right back to the battle for identity again. Remember, in this world all good comes under attack. Who God says you are is good, so the devil attacks that goodness and twists your identity. He leaves you believing you are what you earn. You are how you look. You are what others think about you. You are what you can do.

WRONG. Those are lies.

When you understand your identity through Christ, then you can stand in this undeserved privilege Paul tells us about. Even though you didn’t earn it, you can stand there with gratitude and confidence and receive it because of Jesus. You can let God love you!

We’re often wandering around looking for our place.

If your only place is the mother of your house, then your whole world is turned upside down when those kids grow up and leave the house. You don’t even know who you are if you’re not the mom.

If your only place is the wife, then what happens when husband goes through a mid-life crisis and brings crisis to yours, or when husband’s life ends before yours? You don’t know who you are anymore if you’re not his wife.

If your only place is the girl who gets the job done, but then finally the job is done and there’s no more work to do, then who are you? Where’s your worth? Where’s your value? What’s your identity?

But Jesus has shown us our place. Our place is standing in God’s grace. A permanent place of undeserved privilege. A standing of forever good enough. A place of worthy and chosen and loved. Now, let God love you!

Jesus, thank you for making me forever good enough. God, thank you for loving me. I’m going to just let you love me now!

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