I kid you not, I was singing Bruno Mars’ song: “You’re so amazing — just the way you are!” Almost simultaneously, I opened up Max Lucado’s devotional book, “Grace for the Moment”. And would you believe it? The title of that day’s devotion was “Just the Way You Are”! Now, if that\u2019s not a divine nudge, I don\u2019t know what is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Max wrote: “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be like Jesus.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let that sink in. God\u2019s love isn\u2019t on a sliding scale, shifting with our good days or bad ones. He isn\u2019t keeping score, tallying up our mess-ups. While people\u2019s love can be fickle — praise one day, disappointment the next — God\u2019s love is steady, unshaken, and unconditional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But here\u2019s the part that really grips me. He loves us as we are, but He\u2019s not content to leave us there. Oh, how I long to be more like Jesus! And let\u2019s be honest, staying just the way we are isn\u2019t the goal. We can smile bigger, love deeper, forgive quicker. Every day is another opportunity to show kindness, compassion, and grace — just like Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t want to settle for a “good enough” version of myself. I want to reflect Christ in how I live, love, and serve. So, let\u2019s make it our daily prayer: “Lord, shape me, stretch me, and help me be more like You.” And then, let\u2019s put it into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because while He loves us just the way we are, He loves us too much to let us stay there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let’s follow the Apostle Peter’s recommendation: \u201cFor this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d – \u202d\u202d2 Peter\u202c \u202d1:5-8\u202c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I kid you not, I was singing Bruno Mars’ song: “You’re so amazing — just the way you are!” Almost simultaneously, I opened up Max Lucado’s devotional book, “Grace for the Moment”. And would you believe it? The title of that day’s devotion was “Just the Way You Are”! Now, if that\u2019s not a divine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1210,1769,30322,1392,267,91,17327,20520,40,16340,31342,31344,1475,3157,31345,31346,31343],"class_list":["post-21667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-divine-nudge","tag-facebook","tag-faith","tag-gods-love","tag-good-enough","tag-grace-for-the-moment","tag-inspiration","tag-just-like-jesus","tag-just-the-way-you-are","tag-live","tag-max-lucado","tag-serve","tag-shape-me","tag-stretch-me","tag-youre-so-amazing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21669,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21667\/revisions\/21669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}