The Real You Has to Meet the Real God

A friend found this on the Of First Importance blog and I decided to re-post it. (Thank you Andrew C.!)

The only way to come to God is by taking off any spiritual mask.
The real you has to meet the real God. He is a person.

Your heart could be, and often is, askew. That’s okay. You have to begin with what is real. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous. He came for sinners. All of us qualify. The very things we try to get rid of—our weariness, our distractedness, our messiness—are what get us in the front door! That’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works.

In bringing your real self to Jesus, you give him the opportunity to work on the real you, and you will slowly change. The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes king of your life. But is has to be your life. You can’t create a kingdom that doesn’t exist, where you try to be better than you really are. Jesus calls that hypocrisy—putting on a mask to cover the real you.

So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you.

—Paul Miller, A Praying Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress 2009), 33-34

This is such a brilliant post because it cuts right to the core of our fallen hearts. It identifies our "Religion" and then moves us to our need for Christ, His provision for us and what our response should be. "For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:14)

Some verses for your contemplation:
"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." (John 17:17)
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

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