1 JohnSampel

Have you ever experienced guilt keeping you from someone's presence? This could look as simple as this: growing up, most children are told to wait until after dinner to get dessert. However, one day came when that cookie jar just looked too tempting, and we couldn't help but sneak a bit before dinner. No one would even know! But before dinner even came, guilt already had time to consume us. Maybe we even felt like we couldn't be in the same room with our parents because they would just know and be so disappointed - it could even lead to us getting in trouble!

This seems like a silly analogy, but often we can tend to approach God with a mindset like this. It can be easy to feel like if we haven't done everything right, we don't deserve to be in His presence - our guilt keeps us from even wanting to be with Him! But, just like a good Father, God doesn't expect us to be perfect - this scripture even reminds us that He knows EVERYTHING! Yet, He still wants us to approach Him with BOLD confidence - and we can do that because we obey Him.

The main command He gives us in this entire chapter is to love one another and let our love be evident through our actions. However, it can be hard to love others as He has loved us if we view Him through our guilt and shame lens. Maybe some of us have a proverbial "cookie jar" with God, and we feel guilty for what we have done or haven't done. God gives us grace for our mistakes and allows us to release ourselves from guilt to approach Him boldly!

By choosing to live our lives with the conviction to love others as He has loved us, we can be confident in our obedience to Him. When we love others, we not only obey His command to us but also grow in our confidence toward Him. By loving others well, we remove the barrier of guilt, and we can approach Him with bold confidence to receive anything we ask according to His will!

Today, let's live by conviction to love others purposefully, remember that God is greater than our feelings, remove the barrier of guilt, and approach Him with bold confidence in prayer!

Prayer Points

• Pray that God helps you identify areas where guilt may be keeping you from approaching Him.
• Pray that God helps you to learn how to approach Him with bold confidence.
• Pray that God helps you to receive His love fully and love others with the same love.