Short Question: "Do I have to be holy/righteous before I approach God for salvation?" (my wording, smile)


I got this wonderful, good-hearted, open-willed question:

Hi Glenn,

I'm sorry to be bothering you, I know you have little time, but your Christianity is my type of Christianity (it resembles a lot C. S. Lewis's way of seeing God), and I don't know who I can trust nowadays, so I'm posing this question in the hopes that you can help me. I'll be quick: I'm a Christian (or wanna-be Christian). I have many difficulties in dealing with God's will, especially concerning tithes, not wanting to go to church, forgiveness, and many other things. My question is this: if I ask Jesus (again) into my life, even if I don't feel like doing these things (I want to do them, but don't want to, or have no guts), can I ask him to change my heart, so that eventually I'll end up doing them (regardless of consequences)? Or to put it in a simpler way, can I become a Christian even with all this unwillingness and fear inside me? A simple 'yes' or 'no' will suffice. That's all I need. Thank you for your time, and sorry to be asking this of you,


I was overjoyed to be able to encourage such a one--with the beautiful heart of our God:

Absolutely "YES", friend! You don’t have to become an omniscient god YOURSELF to do this (warm smile)!

You don't have to get well to go to a doctor, or get rich to go to somebody to help you with your finances, friend.

You don't have to quit sinning, before you ask God to help you quit sinning...(smile)

You don't have to be perfect, before you ask our Lord to make you better.

And don’t worry about 'asking me this'--our enemy's chief weapon is our lack of knowledge about God's good heart, non-condescension, and warmth toward us. Run into His arms with peace, knowing His acceptance is real, un-begrudged, smiling, EAGER, and not-based on YOUR efforts/righteousness/good intentions--but upon HIS!

Headed for an airplane in a few minutes--sorry to be so brief, Glenn

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