Embracing Your True Self: Living in Your Christ-Centered Identity With Jennifer Slatteryনমুনা

You are forgiven.

Although I first understood and received God’s grace as a young child attending a neighborhood Good News Bible Club, I didn’t learn how to live in that reality until my early twenties. In the decades in between, I experienced significant wounding that, for a time, provoked self-destructive behaviors. By my late teens, I gave up on myself completely and tried drowning my pain in alcohol and wild living. This, coupled with wounds from childhood, caused me to, subconsciously, develop a fear-based relationship with the Lord where I expected Him to withdraw His relationship whenever I messed up. Deep in my soul, I felt as if I had to earn His forgiveness.

I’ve come to realize that many of us feel this way. This isn’t surprising considering we live in a largely punitive culture where we’ve become accustomed to people distancing themselves from us when we don’t meet their expectations. But that’s not how our Savior responds to our sin or brokenness. Instead, He moves toward us when we mess up. He responds to our greatest sins with arms opened wide, as He did on the cross, to welcome us close, declaring, “It is finished.” Our sin paid for and our guilt absolved, for all eternity, through His death and resurrection.

Journal prompts:

Pause to consider various ways important people in your past reacted to your mistakes and moral failures. In what ways, if any, do you expect God to respond to you in a similar fashion? When do you find it most challenging to live as His forgiven child? Ask Him to show you the roots of your shame and the next steps in your healing journey. End your journal time declaring this truth over yourself: I am completely forgiven. My past is nailed to the cross.