God knows that we struggle with His acceptance of us. He has said that if we ask for Jesus to be who we live for that we become a child of his and more than that. He says we become holy [meaning good, right and perfect] and that we are saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. All through Jesus Christ. This is why God sent his most loved son to the world to live with us and then be killed for doing nothing wrong. This is why Jesus rose from the dead: to allow us to see the glory of God and then receive the free gift of being called his children.
Like I said though, God knows that we struggle with this. We grew up learning that we have to act to gain things. When we got our first job we learned that we had to work for two weeks to gain a paycheck. In school, that we had to study and do the homework to gain the good grade. The list continues on from there. Unlike anything we have ever experienced before.. this is not how God shows his love for us.
We do nothing. And we gain everything.
The Bible teaches that we are God's children and that through Christ we are holy because of Jesus dying on a cross. All the work was done there over 2000 years ago for us. The Bible also teaches that just like our struggle today, people struggled then with being accepted as children of God. Many writers of the Bible said things about having a struggle that was like a thorn sticking in their side or wrote about praying to God and saying things like, "I do the things that I hate and don't do the things I want to do."
Over and over again God's response was the same to each person. And I am choosing to believe that God is still saying to us today the very same thing:
"My grace is sufficient."
There you have it. I don't know why I haven't chosen to embrace this in my life. I don't believe God could ever be more clear on what he thinks of us here on Earth. If you have a hard time believing that there even is a God and that even if there is a God, why does this matter? I would ask you to say something out loud, as weird as it feels. Just ask, "Jesus, if you truly are a reality, show me who you are. Amen." I will also be praying with you that Jesus would show you who he is and the same for me.
Paul, concerning the "thorn in his side:"
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:8-10