Who We Are
Forgiven.
This. This gift. This declaration. This Truth about who we are and what has been laid upon our brokenness and shame is the most life-altering bestowing you or I will ever lay hold of.
Forgiven.
Clean.
Righteous.
Redeemed.
It is what He has accomplished by His blood and what He has written beside your very name. By this declaration, you can literally place this word on the top of the list of adjectives, verbs, and nouns you have labeled yourself with. You know, the “list” you have written over your heart…
Broken.
Dirty.
Sad.
Unlovable.
Go on and cross those names out now. It’s ok. If you are carrying those names around, let me assure you that they don’t belong to you anymore. If you have become a child of God, by the blood of Jesus, you have permission to take those words off. Truly, beloved…they don’t belong to you anymore.
One of the greatest tragedies of the believer’s life is the refusal to divorce themselves from the lies that have been spoken over them – either to themselves in the mirror, or by others.
I see it so often – this shallow movement through the redeemed life as though the good news of the gospel has never actually reached them. Or if it did, the weight of those things which they carry (and refuse to let go of) leave no room for the love, peace, and forgiveness that is rightfully theirs.
But what is equally tragic (and the focused plot of the devil) is when that refusal to accept the forgiveness that belongs to you extends toward the refusal to forgive your brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is a tragedy because it is a wall. A wall that blinds. A wall that divides.
Blinds – believers who refuse to accept the attributes that now define them, essentially are walking around with a false sense of reality, bound instead to unforgiveness and lies. Everything they see, everything they hear, is passed through that lens of deceit.
Truth just bounces right off. Nothing righteous sounds right to the heart that has been blinded by the enemy.
Unforgiveness blinds.
Divides – believers who see themselves (and others) through this broken lens cannot hope to rightly discern the world around them. You know the phrase – “Wounded people wound people” – well, sadly, I think that is true. They do.
But why? They lash out and wound others because they are determined there is an enemy prowling, but they have no idea how to fight it or who it is…so they continue the cycle of wounding in a feeble effort to heal. It is my experience that refusal to accept the forgiveness of God over your own life incapacitates your ability to forgive others.
Unforgiveness divides.
My charge today is for the believer to rise up to start walking in the light and Truth of who we are – forgiven, clean, shameless. We must do this. For our testimony and light to shine in the darkness, we actually have to start shining.
Removing the clutter that shrouds and dampens, we must put on the names that we have been given and let go of the names that we were never meant to own.
But then we need to take that a step further and extend the same grace that was stretched out to us. We MUST forgive others.
We must love fiercely, unfettered by the crippling lies of the enemy, willing to overcome great evil with even greater good.
He is always bigger. In Him, we must wear and declare who we are and what He has done for us. Then our declaration must include a willingness to extend that same grace to others.
Are you clutching a name to your heart that has no business sticking to you? Are you aware that you can lay that down – right now, right here in this moment – and forever change your vision and hope for your life?
When you lay down lies and take up Truth, your life changes. Every time.
Or perhaps you are refusing to forgive someone’s offense against you? Isn’t it exhausting just carrying that burden around? Lay it down. Forgive – as He has forgiven you – and take a deep, cleansing breath of fresh air. Break down that dividing wall and experience a healing within your heart that reaches beyond any pain or suffering.
Do it. Don’t wait. Don’t give one more inch of ground to the enemy of your soul. Walk in the light and Truth of healing, forgiveness, and grace.
It’s yours. So, go on and own it.
The song I want to share with you today is new from North Point Inside Out, entitled, “Written.” It is a beautiful song about the powerful declaration that Jesus wrote upon your very heart and mine…we are forgiven. He said it. Let’s believe it.
With joy for the journey,
Sarah
