““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.””‭‭John‬ ‭3:16-21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This scripture has pulled me out of some dark places and has been one of my fighting forces against the lies that the enemy has tried to plague my mind with. It brings me comfort when I am struggling with my weaknesses and faults. It brings assurance that Jesus does not judge me and that God does love me despite my faults, failures, and weaknesses. And it fills my heart with so much gratitude because all God ask of me is to believe in Jesus and He will not hold my faults and all that I am not against me.

Because of Jesus we do not have to try to be perfect. We can be the mess that we are and know that we are still accepted and loved just as we are. We can mess up 100 times a day and know that if we are sincerely sorry and ask for forgiveness then we are forgiven. We can lose the fighting battle of a bad habit daily but it is not held against us. No matter what the sin is that we struggle with, there is no judgement from Jesus because of the incredible love and mercy that God has for us.

Have you ever shied away from God because of known willful sin in your life? I know that I have and I still find myself doing it from time to time. But why? Do I think that if I hide from him that he won’t know what I’m doing? Or am I afraid he will be upset or disappointed with me? What is it that I, or we, fear that causes us to run from God instead of running to him? Scripture says that the people living in darkness refused to go near the light for fear that their sins would be exposed. And people of the light ran to it so others would see that they were doing what God wanted them to do. Jesus is the light being spoken about in this scripture. So that means that they were afraid that Jesus would see how sinful they were if they went near him, but those that did right came to him. I think this paints the picture of what many Christians do today. If we have been good and on our best behavior we run to Jesus wanting him to see how good we are. But if we have been bad and disobedient we somehow try to hide or keep our distance from him because of fear. It can’t be fear of our sins being exposed because Jesus already knows everything that we do. Just because we may not want Jesus to know what we’ve been up to doesn’t mean that we can hide it from him. The only thing that we are doing if we try to hide ourselves from him is hurting ourselves. He already knows everything and yet he is still calling out to us so that we can be saved from judgement and punishment.

God sent him to save the world and NOT to judge it. And God did that because He loves us that much. God loves YOU so much that He made Jesus give up his life so that YOU could be saved from punishment and also have life. He knew the downfall to humanity and the weaknesses that you would have. He knew the struggle of temptation that you would face. He knew that you were going to give in to temptation and wrong doing. He knew that you would let your humanity control you at times. He knew that you were going to make bad choices and wrong decisions. And even after knowing all of this He still chose to write your name in the lambs book of life and save you from judgement and punishment. He still chooses to love you and to have mercy on you. He still believes in you. And He will never ever leave you nor forsake you!

If you have found yourself hiding away from Jesus in shame or guilt it is time to stop hiding and run to him. You can not hide anything from him. You are only hiding yourself from the forgiveness and grace that you need. You are hiding yourself from the salvation that He died for you to have. You are hiding from the freedom to live your life free of shame, guilt, and judgement. And you are hiding yourself from the incredible love that He has for you.

God loves us so much that He sent His only son to save us and not to judge us. He knew what He was getting before He made that choice, and yet He still chose to do it. He made the way for us to be able to come directly to Him without the stain of sin. He made the way for us to be in right standing with him so that He could shower us with His unfailing love and approval. He made the way for us to be able to stand tall in the midst of our mess. He made Jesus to be everything that we can not be so that through Him we can be and do all that we are meant to be and do. Everything that we have not been in the past we now are through Jesus. And we have no reason to have to hide from Him ever again because His purpose for coming into the world was to save us, not judge us, and to give us a hope and a future. The case against you has been thrown out because you have been found not guilty and your record has been exsponged. Therefore be free to run to God and never hide from Him again.