Let me introduce you to a scruffy little thing I like to call guilt. As the letters roll off my tongue and over my lips, I can hear a courtroom judge shouting with authority, “Guilty as charged!” as the gavel explodes across the desk.
Guilt pulls the rug out from under us. It is not a friend but a foe. It masks its cruel intentions with an angel-like smile. It is an invisible abductor that never seems to loosen its grip.
Guilt wants a piggy back ride into our lives. It hops on our shoulders and kicks its legs until it shoves us to the ground begging for mercy. Guilt has no mercy. The extra weight is overwhelming. Sometimes, it weighs us down so much that we don’t get back up.
Slung over my back I have a sack full of regret that has been stuffed and overstuffed through the years. It overflows with so much guilt (from abusive relationships, divorce and attempted suicide) that it rips and tears until the bottom is so vulnerable it cannot withstand the pressure. I keep pushing and shoving the trash downward to make room for more.
I drag this sack soaked with sin around for years until one day I loosen and untie it. Once the bag opens and the stink releases, I lay it at the foot of the cross. I don’t just lay my sin there. I lay all of me there. I deny myself there.
I am tired of me. I want more of Him. I realize I must lay down more of “ME” in order to pick up more of “HIM.”
I look up. As tears burst onto my face, I can finally see my sin dangling from that old rugged cross. Sin that was forgiven the minute the nails pierced through the hands and feet of my Jesus. Sin that will forever stick to the blood stained beams. Sin that will be set free because of what Jesus did at Calvary.
There is nothing you or I could ever do to make the Creator of the Universe stop loving us.
There is no spot that can’t be scrubbed clean by the blood of Jesus. He is enough. His grace is sufficient. His strength makes us stronger.
Guilt pulls the rug out from under us. It is not a friend but a foe. It masks its cruel intentions with an angel-like smile. It is an invisible abductor that never seems to loosen its grip.
Guilt wants a piggy back ride into our lives. It hops on our shoulders and kicks its legs until it shoves us to the ground begging for mercy. Guilt has no mercy. The extra weight is overwhelming. Sometimes, it weighs us down so much that we don’t get back up.
Slung over my back I have a sack full of regret that has been stuffed and overstuffed through the years. It overflows with so much guilt (from abusive relationships, divorce and attempted suicide) that it rips and tears until the bottom is so vulnerable it cannot withstand the pressure. I keep pushing and shoving the trash downward to make room for more.
I drag this sack soaked with sin around for years until one day I loosen and untie it. Once the bag opens and the stink releases, I lay it at the foot of the cross. I don’t just lay my sin there. I lay all of me there. I deny myself there.
I am tired of me. I want more of Him. I realize I must lay down more of “ME” in order to pick up more of “HIM.”
I look up. As tears burst onto my face, I can finally see my sin dangling from that old rugged cross. Sin that was forgiven the minute the nails pierced through the hands and feet of my Jesus. Sin that will forever stick to the blood stained beams. Sin that will be set free because of what Jesus did at Calvary.
There is nothing you or I could ever do to make the Creator of the Universe stop loving us.
There is no spot that can’t be scrubbed clean by the blood of Jesus. He is enough. His grace is sufficient. His strength makes us stronger.
So unpack your overstuffed bag girls and leave it at the foot of the cross. Jesus is ready to take out your trash and replace it with His treasure.
He is worth it; and He thinks we are too!
“He took our sin away by nailing them it to the cross” (Col. 2:14).
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