Loving God Means We Love the Messy

I was working in the yard clipping some bushes and praying. I was telling God how much I love Him and asking Him to help me love Him more. I so moved by what I felt the Lord say to me in response to my request, that I wrote about it in a Facebook post.

The Facebook Post

I have been praying, “Jesus help me to love You more.” Simple prayer, but the answer He gave me was not simple. He said, “If you want to love Me more, start by first loving people.” I found out in a hurry; a simple prayer could have more meaning than I thought. I wanted to by-pass people and just have Jesus as my object of love. I said, “but Lord, people are messy, and I don’t like messy.” Then He said, “loving messy is what will help you to love Me more, what you do to the least, you do to me. Love messy more, you will love Me more.” Sometimes we want shortcuts with God, give me Jesus, and He says, “I will give you Me, but bring the messy with you.” 

Loving the messy is loving the Lord. It made me smile, but as someone once said, “Christianity wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the messy people.” In reality, we are all messy, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. However, He still loves and forgives us. He is not shocked, nor is He surprised by how messy our lives have become, He just loves us regardless. I was surprised by all of this, because I thought I could love Jesus and pick and choose who I loved, mostly avoiding the messy. Jesus didn’t let me off the hook, if I want to love Jesus more, messy people would be a part of that process.

Jesus had His Critics About the Messy

The Pharisees confronted Jesus in Matthew 9:10-13 because He was hanging around messy people:

  “ Later, as Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner at Matthew’s house, there were many notorious swindlers there as guests! The Pharisees were indignant. “Why does your teacher associate with men like that?” Because people who are well don’t need a doctor! It’s the sick people who do!” was Jesus’ reply.  Then he added, “Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture, it isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful.’ For I have come to urge sinners, not the self-righteous, back to God.”

Religious people as seen in these verses, can be the most self-righteousness people on earth. Their religious practice becomes their god. In the past I have written about how God hates religion, basically for that reason, their religious practice replaces Him. When we analyze those verses, it becomes apparent that the religious did not care about messy people, they were beneath them in every way possible. How does that represent God? Jesus set them straight and made it clear that God cares about messy people, He came to save them. Self-righteousness is the epidemy of human pride. No one has the righteousness that God requires, that is why Jesus came. Our righteousness is His righteousness, thus doing away with any self-righteousness acts that make us feel superior to others. God’s righteousness serves others and never puts anyone down. Jesus came for the messy, which means all of us.

Living With the Ideals of Jesus

God does not discriminate on who He loves and doesn’t, His character always remains the same.  He loves His creation, and Jesus is the model for how we are to live in this life. When we study the thinking of Jesus, review His practices and listen to His teachings, it becomes clear what He values. He values people and dislikes the hypocrisy of religious practice, that often competes with Him. If anything, Jesus makes us honest, by helping us realize we are sinners, making all of us messy people before a Holy God, and it is Jesus who came to remove our sinful, messy selves and makes us right.

Challenging the Culture with the Truth of Jesus