Open your Bible and read Luke 18:9-14
“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:14 · ESVTwo men pray. One lists his resume for God. The other cannot lift his eyes and asks for mercy. The respectable one goes home exactly as he came.
Run through the accounts and track where the anger goes. It lands on religious insiders almost every time. Proud people, gatekeepers, men who loaded burdens on others and lifted nothing themselves. The prostitutes and collaborators and drunks get invitations to dinner.
That should rearrange something. A lot of people assume that if Jesus is real he must be disgusted with them. The record points the other direction. The ones he could not reach were not the worst behaved. They were the ones certain they had nothing to be forgiven for.
If you have been sure you are too far gone to even ask, you have him backwards.
Do this today
Say out loud the one thing you assume would disqualify you from all of this.
An honest thing to say to God
“If he is real, then what I have done is not the end of the conversation.”