When my son turned four-years-old my wife and I gave him Grow-to-Pro Basketball from Fisher-Price. It was a sure winner, not only because he enjoys playing with it, but also because the LORD taught me an invaluable lesson through it.

You see, one day I noticed something that struck a chord in my heart while my son was playing with his new toy. When he tried to make the ball through the hoop but missed, I still said, ‘Good Job’, to him. When I said that to him he not only smiled, he was also encouraged to keep trying.  After a while he finally made it in, and then proceeded to make more and more shots thereafter, joyfully seeking to master his new toy.

Now then, what do you think would have happened if I said to my son that he was bad for missing the shot or yelled at him for not making it in?  What would have happened if I did nothing but focus on his failure while failing to acknowledge his effort?

It’s likely that he wouldn’t have been motivated to keep trying. But even if he did continue to try, he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed playing the game at all, but would only have kept trying to succeed in hope to win my heart.

But I didn’t do that, because he already had my heart, which is why my judgment of his performance wasn’t based on whether he succeeded or not; rather, I based it on his effort. This made all the difference in encouraging him to keep trying, and because he kept trying he eventually succeeded. Moreover, even though he missed the shot several times he was still happy, not because he missed it of course, but because he knew that his Daddy would continue to encourage his efforts without making him feel like an utter failure for falling short of making it in.

There is a tendency for people to think of God as an angry Judge who is ever ready to bring down the mallet of condemnation upon them for every wrong move that they make, and some even go so far as to assume that God hates them for failing. This is usually because they are under the impression that God measures our worth by our works. But is this really true? Is God like that?

I submit that God doesn’t judge us by our ability to succeed, but by our willingness to keep trying. That is, He doesn’t see us as utter failures whenever we fall short of the mark; rather, He sees us as sons and daughters whom He holds dear to His heart, even when we’ve failed.

How do I know this? Because the Bible tells me that God “does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1Samuel 16:7) And there are numerous examples in the Bible to validate this claim. For even though the Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23), it also refers to people who were sinners as having been blameless and upright and perfect, not because they got it right all the time, but because God has a different way of looking at things than we do. When He looks deep into the heart we merely look at the surface. Thus we often fail to see what God sees in us because we don’t see Him as He is.

For example, Noah was acknowledged as “a just man, perfect in his generations”, and as one who “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9); yet, he had an issue with alcohol (Genesis 9:20-21). Job was declared to be ‘blameless and upright’ in God’s eyes (Job 1:1); yet, he cursed the day of his birth and essentially grieved the fact that God gave him life (Job 3). Moses was declared to be “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3); he had an anger problem (Numbers 20:11).  Then there was David; God declared him to be a man after His own heart (1Samuel 13:14); yet, he not only committed adultery, he even caused the death of an innocent man in an attempt to hide his sin (2Samuel 11:1-17).

And let’s not forget about the disciples of Jesus; they argued over who would be the greatest among them in the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 22:24). Moreover, they even chose to sleep while Jesus was deeply distressed; He asked them to stay awake and pray, but they wouldn’t. Indeed, they should have encouraged Him, but they slept instead. To make matters worse, they all abandoned Him shortly after He was betrayed.  In fact, not long before this happened, one of them tried to convince Jesus that he would never leave Him, but denied that He knew Him three times. (Matthew 26:36-46, 56; Luke 22:55-60). Of course, the irony in all of this is that Jesus foreknew that they would do all of these things; yet, He still chose them!

So what is your picture of God now? What does all of this tell you about Him?

It tells me exactly what the Bible says: “God is love.” 1John 4:8

Listen, if you have given your life to Jesus Christ you can be assured to know that you are no longer under the condemnation of the law. Instead, you are blameless and perfect before God’s eyes, not because of your works, but because your life is covered by the blood of the Lamb (Colossians 1:21-22).

Now please keep something in mind here; just because God sees us as blameless in Jesus Christ, that doesn’t mean we are free to sin with impunity.  Being under grace has nothing to do with being lawless, but everything to do with being completely dependent on God.  So I’m not suggesting that He was pleased with the sins that were committed by those mentioned above; God hates sin.  However, what made all the difference with these men was that they were remorseful and sought to make things right with God after doing wrong.

Unfortunately, many people remain in their sins because they covet evil.  Such people do not really belong to God; instead, through their incessant rebellion against Him they essentially pledge their allegiance to Satan–the father of lies.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6-7 NKJV)

God is willing to forgive us of our sins and put us back on our feet again; but if we aren’t willing to invite Him into our lives to do this then how can we sincerely say that we love Him more than we cherish our sin? Those who belong to God will foster a genuine love for Him; they will take His word seriously and invite Him to mold and fashion their lives according to His will. Thus they are be blessed, not because they get it right all the time, but because His fingerprints on their hearts.

People are often filled with sadness and dissatisfaction because they work hard to try to earn God’s favor while failing to discern His love. They think of Him as always being angry with them because they fail, while not seeing Him as the loving Father who encourages them to get back up and keep trying. It is no wonder that there are so many Christians who walk about with a sad countenance; they don’t know the joy of the LORD because they haven’t seen the face of God. That is, they haven’t seen the God who smiles.

Is this how you’ve been feeling about God? If so, then throw those thoughts into the sea of His love and know that He has paid the ultimate price to be with you and is not willing to throw you away. The devil is the one who wants you to believe that God measures your worth by your works; he wants you to believe that you are an utter failure in God’s eyes and that you are worthless; he wants you to think of God as the Father who can’t be pleased so that you will throw in the towel and give up on trying to serve Him. But God has something else to tell you, and here it is:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV)

There is no doubt that God wants us to seek Him with our whole heart, but that is because He never stops giving us His heart, which means even when we fail to show our love for Him, He never stops loving us.

Therefore, don’t think of God as an angry Judge who is ready to bring the mallet of condemnation down upon you because you have failed; rather, think of Him as the loving Father who embraces you with kindness and stands by your side, encouraging you to get back up and keep trying.  Think of Him as the God who smiles.

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