Even as a Christian, you can feel the yips—that moment when shame from old sins creeps back in, making you wonder if you’re really free, if God’s forgiveness is truly yours. Romans 6:23 speaks directly into that weight: the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We can be inclined to delay approaching God, too busy obsessing on our doubts to come, much like Thomas in John 20. But Thomas did come and so should we.
After Jericho’s walls fall without a fight, Israel feels certain the next battle will be routine—so certain they never bother to ask God first. Joshua 7 exposes a harder truth: what happens when success convinces us we’ve earned God’s blessing. One man’s hidden sin and a leader’s unexamined confidence unravel an entire people, revealing the dangerous gap between assumed standing and actual standing before God.
We’re drawn to people who seem useful, impressive, ready to contribute—and in Luke 18, the disciples felt the same way when they turned away parents bringing infants to Jesus. But Jesus stopped them: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
You can confess Jesus as Lord, cast out demons, do mighty works—and still hear him say, “I never knew you.” Matthew 7:21–23 cuts past everything we think proves we’re his followers, asking instead the question that actually matters: Does he know you?