Day 9

 

Grace Frees us to See Ourselves and God for Who We Really Are


1 John 1:7- “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

He slipped through the church doors with the quiet hope of going unnoticed, shoulders drawn in to escape every familiar gaze. The place he once knew so well felt foreign now, heavy with the weight of memories he wished he could rewrite. Shame clung to him like a second skin; every misstep, every regret whispering that he didn’t belong here anymore.

Yet beneath the fear of being truly seen, something deeper pulled him forward. It wasn’t confidence or courage, just a fragile ache for God to meet him in the ruins he carried. And so, he kept walking, hoping grace might find him before anyone else did.

I can relate to this guy. We are acquainted with church, but our regrets make us want to hide more than stand out. Sometimes church is not the safest place to go.

But something within us drives us forward. We don’t want our story to be told, but for some reason we know our story can free us from our past. No one knows, but we want more than anything to walk out of the cloak of darkness that weighs us down into the light of who we really are.  

We have grown tired of living in the anonymity of darkness. Our instincts tell us that light may reveal our regrets, but maybe we will find other people who carry the same burdens we bear and wear the same mask we wear. 

So, we take a tentative step into the light and discover we are safe to see ourselves for who we really are because we can see God for the One who is full of grace and faithful to show mercy (1 Peter 5:10; 1 John 1:7, 9).

We experience God helping us become the person who never wants to hide again. We find it is safe to embrace the ugliest parts of who we are because we have come to trust Him to redeem us from every regret and to make us right to be a part of the very people we once hid from (Titus 2:11-14).

So, today we live in in the light embracing the worst of us yet trusting Him to embrace us anyway.

Declaration of Grace

I am free from my past to enjoy today knowing that God knows the worst of who I am and loves me anyway.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the courage to accept my past regrets. You have helped me trust that Christ has done everything to redeem all I have tried to hide. So, I live today with no mask ready to listen to someone else’s story to enjoy watching them find the same Light that has set me free. Amen.

 Click this link to find out more about the influence of grace from my new book "Living Under the Influence: How Grace Sets Us Free from the Performance Mindset." Click this link to visit my author's website.

 

 

 

 

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