Pray without pretending, live without fretting, love without discriminating, speak without fearing.
Through the Mercy of God we are free to do these things. The coolest definition of Mercy I think is 'price paid'.
The price is paid for our sin which is what separates us from God. Therefore we can come to God, close to him without fear, trepidation, discrimination, pretence, because Jesus is our advocate. He is by our side and when God (rightly) judges us for our sin (lying about whether you fed the cat vs Murder -a discussion for another day!) and says to God, 'hang on a minute, take me, I'll go in his place'.
Who would do that??! Well apparently Jesus does, which is the coolest news =) I often struggle with the thought that I'm not good enough for Jesus to even want to take my place. I mean, it's probably a bit easier to take the rap for someone you like! But no, He LOVES us, so it's all the better. Because He loves us He will save us. He loves us because He loves us. If you love someone then you'd do pretty much anything for them to save them, to stop them from dying.
Even when we are struggling, God will save us. It's not a conditional love - if you do this, then I will....
It's completely UNconditional, He loves us whilst we are still sinners.
The whole New Testament, even the whole of the Bible, shows this to us. Look who Jesus hung out with, cared for, spoke to, had time for. Not the pretenders, the big wigs who thought they knew everything and were really arrogant, showed off, thinking they had it sorted.
Don't pray like the Pharisee in the temple, loud and proud - not that it's wrong to pray out loud - just that it shouldn't be for show, look at me etc. Pray like the poor widow, humbly, sincerely, honestly. God knows your heart anyway, so why pretend to the rest of the world, none of that matters...Live without fretting.
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