By Lauren Maloney 

 “Give thanks to the God of Heaven! His faithful love endures forever."

Psalm 136:26

Will God ever give up on me?

There was a time when I believed I was beyond redemption, unreachable by God’s light due to my past mistakes. Believing this lie kept me in my sin for a long time, thinking nothing could change. However, the Bible clearly states that our mistakes do not define us; while my past shaped my life, it does not define who I am. I was and always will be a child of God and I give thanks to the God of Heaven for His faithful love that endures forever.

Through Jesus Christ’s grace, we can change a future we once thought unchangeable. There is no sin too great for God’s forgiveness, nothing too big to not be covered by the blood of Jesus. I wasted so many years in fear wanting to believe he wasn’t real, just so I didn’t have to worry about the things I had done. God shows us how forgiving He is constantly in the bible, but one of my biggest problems back then was I never read His truth.

I believed the lies that are told about the church and God. Some thing is that everyone is judging you and if you’re not perfect you cannot be in His flock. If that was true, most of the bible would need to be rewritten. Again and again, God chooses those who may seem unqualified to fulfill His purpose. Moses, who set His people free, murdered another person, King David, God’s chosen King, committed adultery and one of Jesus’ own disciples had a temper. The saying goes, “God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called." If God was in the spirit of giving up on people, we’d have no one left to lead His people.

Jonah was so scared of the mission God sent him on he tried to run from Him. I know that feeling all too well, thinking I could just run from Him and nothing would matter. Believing I don’t have a true purpose in His Kingdom, especially after how I lived my life. I only realized my mistake when I went to church on my own, not just because my parents told me to. I realized how wrong I was when I read His words for myself and saw how repeatedly He forgives and even when you think not this time they’ve gone too far, He forgives them. Just as I know, He forgives me still to this day.

When Jesus was on the cross between two criminals who deserved to be there (Luke 23:40) one of the men said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” and Jesus responded by telling him he would be in paradise with Him that day. He forgave the man quickly. His faith in who Jesus was saved his eternity, just as my belief in Jesus saved mine. That same forgiveness Jesus has can only come from The Father, as Jesus said in John 5:19 “Very truly, I tell you, The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does."

God doesn’t give up on us. Only we can give up on ourselves when we believe the lies of the world. The truth will always be more powerful; you just have to read it for yourself. No past sins can keep you from the faithful love that surrounds God. When you give your life to Him, you are no longer held down by your past, just like Paul said in Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.” That’s why it is important to take time each day to “Give thanks to the God of Heaven! His faithful love endures forever”.