While perusing the interwebs I ran across this quote: “We
can’t hate ourselves into a version of ourselves we can love.” Now just think
about that for a second. Hating yourself isn’t going to magically change you
into the person you want to be. Yeah, you heard me, so stop being so hard on
yourself! Now, this also got me to
thinking about sin and guilt and shame. We can all get pretty hard on ourselves when
it comes to sin. We all sin and we’re all going to mess up because we’re human
and naturally when we screw up or make a mistake we have to deal with
consequences. It’s natural to feel guilt for something you’ve done wrong.
However, I think shame is a different story. I think guilt and shame frequently
get lumped together when they are two different things. Guilt tells you that you did something bad whereas shame tells you that you are bad. Shame
is guilt on steroids. Shame tells you that even though you’ve repented of your
sins, you are still dirty. Shame tells you that you are the worst person. Shame
tells you that no other Christian has sins like you. Shame tells you your sins
are unforgivable. Shame tells you that
you’re unlovable. Shame tells you that Jesus blood isn’t enough. Shame tells
you that you aren’t enough. But do you know what shame forgets to tell you
while it’s telling you all those other things? Shame forgets to tell you that it
is a lie. Yes, we all sin. Yes, we are broken. Yes, we are dirty but guess what?
Jesus shed his blood on the cross for this exact purpose. Jesus died on the
cross to forgive our sins and heal us and make us clean. Don’t misunderstand me
in saying that since Jesus died on the cross you can sin however you want and
not feel bad. That is not it. When you sin I pray you are convicted and that
you earnestly look to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. Christ knows your heart
and he knows you and so when you earnestly ask for forgiveness, God gives it to
you. Your slate is wiped clean and it’s as if it’s never happened.
There are
moments when you are going to feel guilty and then your guilt will turn into
shame and you’ll find yourself just dwelling on how awful you are, however, I
pray that you can recognize in that moment that all those horrible things you are
believing about yourself are lies. Satan is the father of lies. He makes lies
sound like they’re solid truth but they’re not. They are so not. The Ben Rector
song “If You Can Hear Me” comes to mind when I think of this because there is a
line in the song that says, ‘sometimes the devil sounds a lot like Jesus,
telling me I’m not enough.’ That is so accurate. In those moments we start to
believe that it’s Jesus telling us that we’re not enough but that can’t be any
farther from the truth. Jesus thinks you’re enough. He thinks you’re so enough
that he died on the cross for you. Jesus
loves you so, so much.
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is
His steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the
west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” –Psalms 103: 11-12
That’s what REDEMPTION looks like my friends and it’s the
most beautiful truth in the world.
