Jesus doesn't live in a closet.

This guy preached a couple of Sundays ago and said something that I thought was rather significant.

He was talking about resting in the Love and Grace that God extends to us. Then he said, "God does not sit around, thinking about my sin. So, as a result, but not a goal, I find myself sinning less."

It makes sense to me this way. I usually try to pull myself up by my bootstraps and do everything myself, including be a 'good' christian. In doing this, I find myself constantly frustrated because I can never measure up to where I feel like I should be.

Instead, God wants us to bask in his love and grace. When we really start to get a grip on how much God loves us and how much grace he extends to us, everyday, I think we start emulating Jesus. We start reaching out to people, asking for direction from the Holy Spirit, and thanking Jesus for making such a huge sacrifice for us. Essentially, we start focusing on God and Jesus' work on the cross and stop focusing on ourselves (and our own shortcomings).

We stop practicing closet christianity because how could we keep such amazing, life-changing news all wrapped up inside of us? We don't love our neighbors and love God because we feel like we have to. Heck, we don't even love our neighbors and love God because we want to. We love our neighbors and we love God because true understanding of his grace and love is so moving that we literally cannot have any other response.

So, STOP TRYING TO BE A GOOD CHRISTIAN and just focus on God's love and God's grace. That's all he ever wants us to do.