How many times do I forget what I long for most is always being offered to me?

As a worker bee and fixer type, I used to be a terrible receiver — praise, gifts, help, anything. (Although, until the past few years I don’t think I even would have used this language. I would have called it humility or service or ‘just the way I’m wired.’) I thought everything was my responsibility – to take care of, to handle, to figure out, to make the best, to help, etc. I struggled to bask in someone’s love for me without my effort to earn it and it was challenging to embrace another’s doing on my behalf.

But the gospel is just that.

Jesus, being perfect as I could never be, doing all that I could never do, so I could be given clear and constant access to God from now and for eternity.

I can’t work for it! I can only receive it. And not only does He invite me to receive salvation through saving faith in Him, He extends familiar and fresh invitations to me every day.

Too often we operate in a scarcity mindset. If I don’t do this or make that happen, I’ll miss something. Or something bad will happen. Or I won’t be good enough. Or I’ll lose what little control I feel like I have. Or I’ll be rejected.

But we are in a family with a Father who only knows abundance. An abundance He invites us into at any time, if only we would accept.

In Matthew 11:28-29, He invites us to rest.

In John 14:27, He invites us to have real peace.

In Proverbs 3:5-6, He invites us to trust Him and have our paths made straight.

In Deuteronomy 31:6, He invites us to be strong and brave.

In John 10:10, He invites us into the richest life imaginable.

In Galatians 5:1, He invites us to live free.

In 1 John 4:18-19, He invites us to know His love and not fear.

In Hebrews 4:14-16, He invites to confidently approach Him.

The entire Bible is an invitation to deep, beautiful, extraordinary living with God. He is never not offering Himself to us. Not on our best day and not on our worst.

Will we spend our hours ignoring His invitations so we can fan our pride, wallow in self-pity, weighed down by fear, or stay in our comfort zone? Or will we receive His invitation into His presence to receive mercy and grace whenever we want?

I hope to become an expert at accepting all of His invitations.