If we try to walk in our own worthiness our shame smothers God's flame of freedom. Choices we've made, unbridled words, actions that caused pain to others are just some of the behaviors that have dropped seeds of shame in our minds and hearts. We suffer with grieving thoughts and heavy guilt from our past and it's as if we are living life with a load of bricks that we drag around behind us. Does God want us to live like that? Can our mind ever be free from the past? Yes, there is freedom and I can assure you that God DOES NOT want us to carry those burdens.
Proverbs 14:30 states, "A heart that has peace is life to the body, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." The condition of our heart determines the life we have in our physical state. How we talk to ourselves and to God sets the trjectory for our life. Beginning each day by acknowledging God's majesty in all things sets us up for joy no matter what our circumstances are. Confessing our sins and then confirming His forgiveness and love toward us sets a platform of freedom under our feet. Giving thanks and knowing that He is in control of everything brings us peace. Surrendering our needs and concerns to Him gives us hope! Joy, freedom, peace and hope are what our hearts need. Yet ever so often we choose to begin our days with regret, sorrow and anger. Who has the better way, God or us? It is in His worthiness not ours where we should hunger and thirst to be.
Proverbs 17:22, "A glad heart is good medicine!
Psalm 42:11, "Why are you sad, oh my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my help and my God!"
Each day begins with a choice of either regret or joy, forgiveness or anger, depression or hope. You may have busied yourself to a point where you don't conciously think about it but there is a river that runs through your soul and hard times or times of illness will reveal its properties of either being bitter or fresh. Ask God to reveal you in His worthiness and not yours.
