God is not put off by your misery. God is not afraid that you’re going to deceive him. God never tires of taking care of you. You might recoil from a leper.
You might feel bothered by beggars who seem to have nothing better to do than continue begging day after day. You might grow weary of someone who is forever sick and never seems to improve. But not God.
If temptation seems to overwhelm you, if you are weak and find yourself once again falling into sin, take courage and turn back to God. He will not give up on you. Jesus told his disciples that they had to forgive not just seven times but seventy times seven times. God is eager to forgive us as long as we are truly ready to be sorry for our sins and begin again.
Trust those wonderful words Saint John wrote in his first letter (4:10): “It is not we who loved God, but God is the one who loved us and sent his Son to offer sacrifice for our sins.” Saint Paul says something similar in the Letter to the Ephesians (2:4): “God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ.”
Saint Augustine offers this comment: “Listen to how you were loved when you were unlovable. Listen to how you were loved when you were awkward and ugly. Listen to how you were loved before anything in you was worthy of love. God loved you first in order to make you worthy of being loved.”
