Another thing that we’ve discussed during the “Why?” series is: “Why would God love me?”
This seems to be one of the hardest things to get through in our lives. We know we’re bad. We know that we have been bad all of our lives. So we ask ourselves, “Why would God love me?”
Sometimes when people accept Christ into their lives, they’re set free to talk about the things that they have done in the past, and that can be very healing to be able to do that. But some of the people that I have met seem to be afraid of the freedom, because one of the things that come with freedom is responsibility. So to have the feeling that God’s forgiveness is going to give them a new life and a new future is scary for them, because they are so used to living in guilt, regret, and fear. When they imagine all of that changing, like getting out of prison, it scares people.
The Bible says that we are a new creation in Christ, and that is absolutely true. So, we have to figure out what our ‘new normal” is, and it’s tough figuring out new boundaries and a new way of life, without having all of that emotional baggage attached to it.
We know that all of this is a better thing, but it is still frightening to people. So, fear of change is the reason why some people won’t accept Christ, or at least choose to wait.
Forgiveness is a “God thing”, but making the decision to follow Him is “our thing”.