Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I’m Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic Step Into Open Arms as the first segment of a brand new series The Grand Narrative.
In this series, we’re going to talk about what I believe to be an essential part of the grand plan of God. I believe God seeks a one-on-one relationship with you and with me, and wants to help us discover His plans for us and our true purpose in life.
God has planted special gifts in every one of us to fulfill a specific purpose. That purpose may be quite simple, such as being in the right place at the right time only for a moment, or it may be a much grander purpose that will affect the lives of many across the globe and take many years to come to fruition. Either way, God seeks to help us know and understand the plan that He has set aside for every one of us.
In the first message of this series, I want to talk about the very first steps: approaching God. Whether it’s for the first time or the hundredth, God welcomes us with open arms, no questions asked.
This may be difficult to believe, especially for those who feel they don’t deserve a relationship with God. The truth is God loves us no matter what we’ve done. Today, let’s talk about what it means to step into God’s loving arms.
Before we get started, if you are watching on YouTube, I would immensely appreciate it if you could click that like button and subscribe. I also invite you to share your comments throughout this program. Your engagement truly helps us share God’s word with more viewers. If you are listening to our podcast, please be sure to follow us and leave a rating for this episode. Your feedback helps us reach more hearts seeking spiritual nourishment.
I’ll be right back
Welcome back. Let’s continue in our discussion of things to consider as we step into the loving arms of God.
You Are Forgiven
We have all made mistakes, every single one of us. I have made mistakes that, in retrospect, I am truly ashamed of, and I deeply regret my actions—especially those that have hurt others. There may be similar mistakes you have made in your past, whether that past was decades ago or just a few minutes ago. The good news is that when we ask God for forgiveness, He will forgive us.
That being said, one of the fundamental things to understand about a relationship with God is that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot actively walk in ways that dishonor God and expect, at the very same time, to have a close and intimate relationship with God. Partaking in activities of the world that do not honor God can be a blocker to a strong relationship with Him.
God does not ignore the fact that you are actively pursuing wrongdoings, but the moment you confess to Him from your heart and ask for forgiveness, any barriers caused by your transgressions will fall—any barriers you have caused, or that your lack of repentance may have caused. There is nothing you can do that will prevent you from having a relationship with God if you confess and ask Him for forgiveness.
The world has laws, rules, and expectations, so your actions may have consequences, but those consequences do not play a role in God’s love for you—His unfailing, complete, and unshakable love.
If your recent or distant past is keeping you from approaching God for the first time, I say to you: you only need to ask Him for forgiveness. He already knows what you have done, but we can posture our hearts in the right place to confess our actions and ask Him to forgive us.
If we are actively pursuing activities that do not honor God, we must also turn away from them. We must actually -stop- and turn away from that activity to prepare our hearts and minds for Him.
If you are feeling nervous about approaching God because of what you have done, regardless of when you did it, you need only ask Him for forgiveness. He is ready to welcome you with open arms.
Come as You Are
Many people feel hesitant about approaching God based on mistakes they have made in the past. There is a misconception that actions from our past disqualify us from approaching God. The idea that years, decades of wrongdoing make us unworthy of approaching God.
There are also those who have simply never approached God at all. They may only be exposed to the God they hear about in movies and entertainment. They may have heard things, watched things, and witnessed both beautiful celebrations of faith and great atrocities committed in the name of faith.
So, what is someone to do when they are approaching God for the very first time, and they simply don’t know what they don’t know?
My advice to you today is simply this: come as you are. The bedrock of this ministry, and what I truly believe, is that you can approach God exactly as you are. There is no prerequisite, ritual, procedure, or qualification required to approach Him.
You can approach God under any circumstances. He is always waiting with open arms, ready to embrace you exactly as you are at this very moment. God created you, He loves you, He knows your innermost thoughts and feelings, and He knows the gifts He has planted within you. You have a purpose and a perfected plan, and He is eager to share it with you.
One of the main things holding people back when approaching God for the first time is the labels that society places on them. Humanity has the capacity to cause great division and strife, and our culture may define you as someone who is unworthy of God. The reality is all are worthy to approach God.
If you have been told that God does not love you, that statement is untrue. If you feel, for some reason, that God does not love you, this is untrue. God loves the faithful just as much as God loves the people who commit transgressions every day.
That being said, a genuine relationship with God can only happen when we decide to turn away from the ways of the world and turn away from wrongdoing. We must turn away from the activities that do not honor Him, open our hearts, and prepare to walk toward Him. When you make the decision to turn toward God, He is waiting for you with open arms. It does not matter what society says about you; God says that He loves you more than you can fathom, despite what you did or didn’t do and despite what society says about you. He sees you, and he wants an intimate relationship with you.
For those of you who have never had a relationship with God, there may be elements of your life where you don’t know what you don’t know, or where you are unsure if certain actions are honoring God. Don’t worry. God knows your heart, your intentions, and your motivations.
God is ready and willing to accept you as you are. If there are areas of your life that are getting in the way of a full relationship with Him, He can reveal them to you. God sees all of your actions that are in the way of true intimacy with Him. If you truly do not know, God will help you see which areas of your life do not honor Him. God desires and rewards relationships with those who choose to live a life that honors Him.
Come to God exactly as you are. No more and no less. God will work with you even as others will not. There is no limit to God’s love. Allow Him to show you today.
You Have a Purpose
So far today, we have touched on the fact that if we have wrongdoing from our past, we need only to ask God for forgiveness, and He will forgive us. We have touched on the idea that we do not need any prerequisites before we approach God; anyone, under any circumstance, can turn toward Him. If there are things getting in the way of having a full relationship with Him, He will lovingly reveal them to us.
Now, let’s talk about what is in store once we have a relationship with Him.
For every one of us, God has placed special gifts within us to fulfill a purpose and follow a perfected plan. God created you, He wants you to have a life of hope, and He desires for us to truly know who we really are in Him.
Depending on your phase of life, you may be well acquainted with what you feel are your gifts and talents. God knows the gifts and talents you are already aware of, but He also has gifts and talents planted within you that you have yet to discover or experience. When you have a relationship with God, you can ask Him to reveal these gifts to you.
Our society has many systems that allow us to create plans for our lives. We pursue higher education, develop particular skills or interests, build careers, and have the capability to pursue activities we truly enjoy. God truly wants you to have that joy.
Even so, amidst the plans you have created and followed for your life, God has a perfected plan for you to fulfill your true purpose. It is possible for you to be happy with everything you currently know, and still have more in store for you as it pertains to God’s plans.
Some of us pursue a path and life plan that gives us great satisfaction and joy, only to learn that God has a unique and different for us. In those situations, it may be difficult to believe in the moment, but God’s plan will surpass any plan you can create on your own because it is perfectly aligned to the unique gifts He has planted within you. He has a plan to allow you to fulfill your true purpose—the very reason you are here.
I imagine many people never learn of their God-given plan or purpose. When we decide to approach God, we have the incredible opportunity to learn the perfected path He has laid out for us.
Again, God’s plan and purpose for our lives may align with what we already know and enjoy, or it may require a pivot to something entirely new. We must remember that God knows best. In fact, He knows every single thing about every person on earth. He has given us all free will to do as we choose, but if we can decide in our hearts to choose God’s plan over our own, there can be experiences of joy that we could have never accomplished on our own.
When we turn to God and approach Him, know that we can place our trust in Him – trusting He knows what is best for us, our lives, and our future.
Wrap Up
In today’s message, we discuss some things to consider as we step into the open arms of God.
We learned how important it is to remember that He is not only a loving God, but a forgiving God. If we have committed transgressions, if we have acted in ways that are ungodly, we can approach God and ask for His forgiveness. He will forgive.
We recognize that the world has laws, guidelines, and expectations of us as citizens in a society. We may have done things that break these laws, or we may have done things that have broken relationships. In either case, there may be earthly consequences from our actions, even consequences that we must endure for the rest of our lives. The good news is God wipes the slate clean when we ask Him for forgiveness. When we ask God to forgive us for our wrongdoings, He wipes the slate clean as if it never happened in His eyes.
If there are transgressions you have done that you think keep you from approaching God, know that you need only approach Him and ask Him for forgiveness, and you are immediately and completely forgiven.
We also discussed the idea that there are no prerequisites to approach God; we can come as we are. You can come to Him as someone who has believed in Him for decades, or you can come to Him as someone who has never spoken a word to Him for 50 years. God loves both people equally and completely.
There is no ritual or procedure that you have to do to speak to God. You can start a dialog with God at any time and any place. There is absolutely nothing you have to do to qualify for turning to God and asking Him to be a part of your life.
The last area we discussed today was that everyone on Earth has a purpose, a God-given purpose. Everyone on Earth has gifts that God has planted within them, a perfected plan for their life, and a purpose or reason they are here.
I imagine most people live out their lives, never learning of their divine plan, let alone their purpose. God gives us free will, and we can decide to pursue things that give us joy, happiness, and a sense of purpose. Even so, we can ask God to reveal His plans and purpose for us, and ask if He can incorporate the things that He knows we enjoy as part of that plan. We need only ask.
In summary, let us all decide to step into God’s open arms, regardless of our past, regardless of what we have done, and regardless of how society labels us. We need only have a true desire in our heart to get to know Him and be in relationship with Him.
There may be areas of our life that need to be adjusted to fully experience God, and He will happily show us the things that are in the way of truly experiencing the fullness of Him. Whether it is because we don’t know what we don’t know, or it is due to our attachment to activities and things that do not honor Him, He will gladly show us the things we need to do to truly experience all there is to experience with Him.
If you are listening to this right now and know you are turned away from God, I invite you to turn toward Him—whether it is the first time or the hundredth time. Know that He is waiting for you with open arms to give you a life of purpose and hope.
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Embrace Authenticity
