Sinners in Recovery

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” – 1 John 4:9–10 (NIV) 

I know this would work better in person but stay with me. If I were to ask everyone who is a sinner to raise their hand, I’d hope to see every hand in the room — including mine as I asked the question. Not because this is a state, we’re proud of, but because we’re being honest about who we are. 

We’re all sinners in recovery — people learning how to live in the grace God has already given us. And it’s into that honest space that these verses speak. 

Because John knows this about us, he reminds us that God’s love didn’t wait for us to get our lives together. God loved us first. God made the first move. Jesus’ coming, life, death, resurrection, and ascension prove God’s love for us. 

Christ came to us not as a reward for our goodness, but as grace for our brokenness. And that grace reveals the eternal mystery of God’s love: that he meets us exactly where we are — in the truth about our lives, in the places we struggle, in the parts still being healed. 

Recovery isn’t perfection; recovery is movement. And because God meets us there, we learn that recovery is grace at work in real time. And as grace works in us, we respond — earnestly seeking forgiveness, trusting in the assurance of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and longing to become more like him. 

And when we acknowledge who we are, we’re not confessing defeat. We’re confessing hope — hope that the God who loved us first will keep loving us through every step of recovery, hope that the God who began a good work in us will carry it forward, hope that the God who came for us once will never stop coming for us. 

Holy God, we come before you with honesty today, acknowledging that we are sinners in recovery, learning day by day to live in the love you have already given us. Forgive us where we have fallen short, and free us to become more like Christ. Thank you for loving us first and for meeting us where we are. Continue to shape us, heal us, and carry your good work forward in us, and let your love be the story that guides our steps as we follow Christ with open hands and open hearts. Amen. 

Grace & Peace, Pastor Tim