Finding Your Freedom // Leave Shame Behind预览

Choices Change Everything

It is a heavy burden you bear. Walking around, your eyes fixed on what you believe you lack. It isn’t a conscious decision any longer. It’s habitual, a way of perceiving and inhabiting the world with eyes on what other people have rather than on what is the actual glory of you. As a result, you’ve adopted the attitude of victim rather than the attitude of beloved. My voice has become hard to hear above the noise of comparison, criticism of other people, and self-contempt.

This is not how I’ve made you; this is not your true self. Comparison and self-doubt are the thief of joy. You know that. I know you know that. But yet, you do it. You judge other people. You talk about them behind their backs. You do what you don’t want to do. And why? What is causing this hardness of heart? What is making you resistant to change?

Judging others is not effective self-protection. It is not a good way to stop the pain you feel, ease the doubt you have about being loved. It is not good for your heart how you resent other people’s gifts and talents. 

But you are hurting; you don’t believe you are enough. You fear not measuring up to some ideal—what you deem worthy, good, and worth attention. And this shows your idolatry of the world and its opinions. Where am I? Why do my opinions of you not count?

You are blind to my love, deaf to my words, closed off to healing when your wounds propel you toward believing lies rather than truth. Why stay wounded? Why not be healed? Why stay in this same place when you can be free, filled with joy, not just content with who you are—but grateful for who I’ve made you to be? Oh, I love you. I love who you are right now.

And that’s it. That’s what you need to know. What you need to believe or not believe. My sacrifice of my Son for you was no mistake. I loved you so much that I let  my only begotten Son die . . . for you, for your life. I want you to live life with Me. I don’t want us to be separated. I don’t want you to stay in this place of pain, of distraction, of wounding. I love you. I love you. I can never stop. I can never stop.

Come to Me, son, daughter. I bring healing for your heart. Come to Me, son, daughter, I have everything you crave, everything you want, everything you need. Take down the flimsy shield of self-protection—the jealousy and comparison, the judgmental attitude—and receive a new way of seeing, a new way of hearing, a new way of inhabiting your own heart. It is hurting now, this heart of yours. I know. Let me touch it. Let Me place my hand upon the broken places and mend what needs mending, heal what needs healing.

Let Me in, if you want. Keep Me out, if you want. I will love you the same. I will love you the same.

Exercise:

We have a choice, Holy Spirit says: “Let Me in, if you want; Keep Me out, if you want. I will love you the same.”

Our old selves, the physical parts of us that Scripture calls our “weak flesh,” are what make it difficult for us to let God in, to receive His love. These old selves, in their brokenness, are where fear and pain reside. And because of that, these old selves make demands on our lives. Strong demands—that we do something to soothe and medicate our pain; that we do something to deny and distract from our fear. And these demands are often strong enough, and distracting enough, to cause us to forget what is true. And so we [quote] “do something” by turning, instead of to God, to things like anger, selfishness, materialism, workaholism, addiction, adultery, and all the rest.

But here’s what is true: amazing as it is, God offers to us the opportunity for a close, personal relationship with Him—if we’re willing to look beyond the distractions. God, the Creator of heaven and earth; the Alpha and the Omega; the First and the Last; the Beginning and the End—that God—He chose us, personally, individually, to be the focus of His love. He loves us—despite all our bad choices.

He must be mad, I know. But he loves us. And actually, that was always His plan. In His love, He made us to be loved, by Him. So, no matter what we’ve done, no matter our beliefs about ourselves, no matter our self-contempt, He will not be denied. He . . . loves us. And we can’t stop Him. But we can ignore or reject His love—those we can do. Because He won’t force it. He won’t push through the demands of our weak flesh, and force us to receive His love.

Each of us is made to receive God’s love uniquely. How He loves and interacts with me is going to be different from how He loves and interacts with you. He knows our personalities; He made us. He knows what we love to do; He designed that too. He knows how to engage with us, in just the right way. So, hearing—experiencing—one of God’s ‘I love you’s is not something you’re going to miss—if you’re looking for it. You’ll only miss it if you’re choosing your own way.

This choice—this choice about whether to begin receiving God’s love, about whether to fall into a deeper relationship with Him—is one we face right now. In this moment.

Here’s one way you can choose God. You can invite Him in. You can tell Him what’s making you doubt His love for you; what is keeping you from experiencing and enjoying freedom and joy. You can seek His help, rather than bending one more time to the demands of your weak flesh to soothe and medicate, to deny and distract.

So, let’s spend a few moments considering our pain and fear. For this is what we just heard: “Come to Me, son, daughter. I bring healing for your heart. Come to Me, son, daughter, I have everything you crave, everything you want, everything you need. Take down the flimsy shield of self-protection—the jealousy and comparison, the judgmental attitude—and receive a new way of seeing, a new way of hearing, a new way of inhabiting your own heart. It is hurting now, this heart of yours. I know. Let Me touch it. Let Me place my hand upon the broken places and mend what needs mending, heal what needs healing.” So what are they? What are the places in your heart that need healing? What are your fears? What hurts?

Jesus, I need Your help. I need Your healing. I’ve been reluctant, distrustful in the past. I’ve tried to deal with my fear and pain on my own. But it hasn’t worked out so well. So, I’m going to trust You now. I give You access now to the deepest places of my heart—the places I’ve wanted to control, to keep hidden. I want you to see those places now, and to begin healing them. Bring light and life to these places I’ve kept dark—because I know, as long as they remain in the dark, they keep me from You. The inhibit my ability to receive Your love. They stand in the way of our relationship. So, Jesus, do whatever You need to do. Heal what needs to be healed. Do whatever work in me, You want to do. I do trust You. In Your name, amen.

This is a huge step. Letting Jesus in. Trusting Him with your old self, with the broken and hurting places. This step is life changing. And it’s enough for now. So, as the music plays, we invite you to quiet your heart and your mind and just sit in His presence. You don’t need to do anything else other than be with Him. Just listen to the music and soak in His love.

So, get comfortable and try to let everything else fall away.

You are loved. You are loved--no matter what. You are loved.

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