As Christians we come before a holy God as unholy messes. Our everyday sin and our awful moments of reoccurring sin bleed into our confessions before the Lord as we ask for His forgiveness and trust and believe that we are wiped clean and move forward to make better attempts at being sinless like Jesus.

In my devotional time today I’m reading Jeremiah. You may be familiar with Jeremiah from the more popular passage, “‘for I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future,'” Jeremiah 29:11.

I thought to myself, “I wonder how this book starts?” So I began with chapter 1. I’m at the end of chapter 3 and have discovered that the beginning of the book is all about falling into sin, falling away from God. And the whole time there is a resounding “come home to Me” from God.

The biggest thing that shouted out to me in the passages though is the concept of coming to God with your whole heart. With ALL of your sin, even the stuff that you feel like is unforgivable. Because for God, nothing you can and will every do is unforgivable. God’s forgiveness is not limited by what we could possibly do, but rather we limit God’s forgiveness by not letting Him forgive our whole hearts. Our whole selves. When you take a shower you don’t wash everything but your hair, or everything but your arms. No, you wash your whole self, especially the parts that have the most dirt on them.

“Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt … and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Return O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” Jeremiah 3:12b-13a, 13c-14.