5 Things about You That God Is Not Surprised By

1. Your Sinfulness

Do you know what's amazing about being sinful? It instantly qualifies you for a relationship with Jesus.

In Mark 2:17, Jesus says, "'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

Of course, this isn't a license to sin. But when you sin (because this side of heaven, it's inevitable), you can rest assured that God knew it was going to happen. And decided to send his son in your place, anyway.

One helpful metaphor is thinking of yourself as a farmer, going out to work in the fields every day. Would a farmer come back inside the house, with mud on their boots and dirt on their overalls, and cry to their family, "Ugh! I did it again! I'm such a dirty, worthless farmer."

Absolutely not! They'd expect to get dirty. And then they'd expect to get clean.

In the same way, we don't have to be surprised by our sin every day. We just have to keep going back to Jesus on the cross to clean us.

2. Your Limitations

God has unlimited energy, resources, and love. You do not. And God is not surprised by this.

We can feel so guilty for not having it in us to attend a church event (small scale) or cure homelessness (big scale). We can hate ourselves for needing to take breaks, to eat 3 full meals, and to get some refreshment from alone time and others.

Church events are great. So is accepting that you're a human and needing to nap instead. Volunteering is great. So is accepting that you can only do what you can do and leaving the rest in God's hands.

It's okay that you're not instantly best friends with your whole ministry and that you need some time with friends who already know you instead!

Embrace your limitations as God reminds you that he is unlimited. It's a good thing that you're not!

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3. Your Physical Needs and Desires

If God wanted to create us as spirits only, he could have done that. But he decided to create us with physical bodies in a physical world. So, the needs and desires of those bodies are not sinful and are not a surprise to him.

It's no surprise to God that you got grumpy and snapped at your wife because you hadn't eaten that day. He has compassion for that. And it's no surprise to God that, as a single person, you desire sexual companionship. He has compassion on that too.

I love this scripture to remind myself that God has compassion on my body having physical needs:

"As a father has compassion on his children,

    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,

    he remembers that we are dust."

Remember that he made your body. He knows exactly what it's made of. And use this to fight feelings of guilt over your body's needs and desires.

4. Your "Unholy" Emotions

As Christians, we feel great about emotions like "joy," "peace," and "affection." But what about emotions like "rage," "bitterness," and "disappointment"?

God created all of our emotions. Emotions are not sinful-it's what we do with those emotions that can be sinful. But the more comfortable we are with feeling them, the more likely we are to process them in a healthy way and not let them control us.

It makes perfect sense to God that you feel really jealous about your best friend getting married before you. He totally gets you feeling bitterness about your parents' divorce. And he understands rage-he feels that himself!

Your big emotions-all of them-come as no surprise to God. So take after David in the Psalms and freely express all of your emotions to God, and see what he does to transform them.

He loved to pronounce a curse-

    may it come back on him.

He found no pleasure in blessing-

    may it be far from him.

He wore cursing as his garment;

    it entered into his body like water,

    into his bones like oil.

May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,

    like a belt tied forever around him.

May this be the Lord's payment to my accusers,

    to those who speak evil of me.

But you, Sovereign Lord,

    help me for your name's sake;

    out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

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5. Your Need for Love

We are needy creatures. We need to be seen. We need to be appreciated. We need to be loved for who we are and have someone see our endless potential.

If we really admitted to ourselves how desperate we are for love, I bet we’d be embarrassed.

But is a baby embarrassed while it cries out to be held by his mother? Is a two-year-old embarrassed by asking for admiration and praise when she does something brave?

The truth is, we never outgrow those needs. So God isn’t surprised by our need to be loved. He created us that way! He likes that about us!

This need to be constantly, completely and profoundly loved means we will never not need God. And he likes it that way.

So don’t let Satan accuse you of being weak for needing love–or for any of your limitations. Repent of sin. But if it’s not sin and is just part of being human, there’s a good chance God designed you that way.

God can use it in all things to draw you closer to him.

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