You know that sinking feeling when you wonder if you’ve done enough for God today? That weight in your chest when you read about His holiness and wonder if His attitude toward you is closer to the law and judgment of the Old Testament than the grace you see in Jesus?

I wrestled with those very questions for years. How can the God of grace in the gospels be the same God of judgment in the Old Testament? Which one is He toward me?

Last week I told you about that nagging feeling – that God might be bigger, wilder than the version most of us carry. Let me tell you about the wonderful thing God did to alleviate it.

For years as a pastor, I couldn’t shake feeling God wasn’t pleased with me, no matter how much I did. Then God led me to John 14 in my personal study, where Jesus makes this radical statement: “If you have seen me, you HAVE seen the Father.”

I’d taught this verse before. But until that moment, I’d never grasped its true meaning: when I see Jesus’s grace and truth, I’m seeing the Father’s exact nature. Not a partial reveal, but the full picture. While He is just, He is also loving and gracious. Before Jesus came, we only had a shadow of what God is like. But now, in Jesus, we have the exact image and imprint of God.

God is far better than I had ever been told or imagined. Do you see it?

The church often seems afraid to share what He’s really like, worried it might give us “a license to sin.” But I discovered the exact opposite. I didn’t get a license to sin – I began to fall in love with Him. I began to see Him for who He truly is, not who religion had told me He was. He was close, concerned for me, loving and inviting me into deeper fellowship.

This shift changed everything. I never realized what a burden I’d been carrying when I felt I had to earn His love and approval.

For years I had heard “God is Love” but for the first time I began to realize that God loves ME. More than that, God loves you. Wildly, entirely, freely. Not as an angry Father whose wrath is being held back by His Son Jesus, but as a passionate, loving Father who sent His Son to redeem you back to Himself. He doesn’t just tolerate you. He desires relationship with you. He has chosen you.

This reminds me of that scene in Narnia where the children first hear Aslan is a lion. “Is he safe?” one asks nervously. Mr. Beaver’s response captures something essential about God: “Safe? No, he’s not safe. But he is good.”

That’s the God we’re discovering – not safe in the sense of predictable or tame, but wildly good in ways that overturn everything religion taught us about earning His approval.

So often, the weariness in life and the distance we feel from God has nothing to do with God at all. It comes from not having an accurate view of who God truly is. When our eyes open to His true character, our lives are radically transformed.

This week, try this with me: Read John 17:23 – “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Whenever you catch yourself wondering if God really loves you or if you’ve done enough, return to this verse. Ask Jesus to show you one specific way the Father’s love for you mirrors His love for Jesus. Just one. Write it down.

We never outgrow the need to see God for who He truly is. This isn’t a one-time exercise but a lifelong journey of learning to trust Him. We can never be deeply connected to anyone we don’t trust. We must make it our aim to see our Father’s true character: loving, kind, and good toward you and toward me.

If you’d like to dive deeper into how Jesus reveals the Father’s heart, especially if you’re struggling to believe God actually delights in you, here’s our conversation.

P.S: If this stirs something in your heart, listen to ‘Wouldn’t It Be Like You’ by Bryan and Katie Torwalt – it beautifully captures this wild goodness of the Father we’re discovering. Next week I’ll share how seeing God’s true character becomes the foundation for seeing who you truly are in His eyes.