You may have heard preachers telling their congregations to “come as they are” in the presence of God. But what does it actually mean? It is true that God is no respecter of persons, which means whatever your status, gender, educational and financial capacity may be, He would treat you the same as anyone else.
However, there is one particular quality of mankind that God would not allow whenever we stand in His presence, whether in prayer or worship. That is sin. God will never condone sin, even if it is the simplest one you can think of.
So the term “coming as you are” is an invitation to whoever wants to get near and right with God. But that invitation has a requirement – confession and cleansing of sin. If the person trying to draw near to God refuses to deal with his unconfessed sins, the Lord would not hear his prayer.