How frequently the morning’s bright prospects for our day seem diminished by nightfall. From goals not met to things we wish we’d done differently or didn’t do that we wish we had, so many little failings can leave us feeling discouraged and defeated. Yet, as we gain a right concept of God, we begin to glimpse a new, reliable reality.  

The author of First John in the Bible gives a boundless, thought-provoking concept of God as Love (see 4:8). This broadens our perspective of life and ourselves—moving us out of the weariness that comes from being all too aware of our shortcomings. 

John the Baptist proclaimed about Jesus, the individual who exemplified the idea of God as Love, “Look, there is the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29, J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English). These “sins” might not be intentional choices to do or think wrongly. Sometimes they are just the cumulative effects of holding on to a conventional view of life as material, which could foster a harshness in us or make us entertain a subtle but routine self-condemnation—a chronic worry that we won’t ever become better.