Red Lip Society

I have done plenty in my life of which I am ashamed. I have done things that have hurt my family and others around me.

I remember when I first started trying to put my life back together.  I don’t really have the words to convey to you the level of shame that I was trying to crawl out from under.

The first thing I did was make myself right with God.  I repented and dedicated every aspect of my life to serve only Him.

Repent (in Greek, metanoia ) = to change one’s mind or way of thinking;  it implies making a decision to turn around, to face a new direction.

I tried in the only ways that I knew how to make it right with my family and any other people that I had hurt.

With time, I found that the person that just couldn’t seem to forgive me was….well, me.  I was the hardest on myself.  I was the one that just couldn’t let a day go by without me “sucking carpet” asking for God’s forgiveness.  It was like I thought that if I wasn’t living in a constant state of shame and “I’m a sorry worm” that I wasn’t sorry.

Imagine my shock when one day while I was in the middle of sobbing into the carpet of my bedroom closet that I felt the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and say, “You need to forgive yourself.”

I sat straight up, wiped the tears and other fluids off of my face, and went to stare at myself in the mirror.  The young girl that used to look back at me was now a young woman with sad and empty eyes.  I just stood there looking at her, not recognizing her.

Have you ever just been in a place where you literally felt God hug you?  That is the only way to describe what happened as I was standing there.  Something warm and comforting, just like a hug, wrapped around me and I heard again, “Forgive yourself. I already have. You don’t have to keep asking me.”

From that moment, I have not lived in shame or regret. What was done was done.  I had made right what I could and it was time to move on. Did those feelings try to creep back into my mind? Sure they did, but that’s when I would remind myself of what the Holy Spirit had spoken to me.  Now, when they come, I immediately recognize that as a lie from the pits of Hell.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1

You don’t have to walk around in a state of guilt and shame!  That is not of God!  Once you have truly asked for forgiveness, it is finished.

Where would my life be right now if I had let the Devil keep me, not in the same bondage I was in during my past, but in bondage to my past?!?  There is no freedom in that!  And it was for Freedom that Christ set us free.

Don’t let the people around you keep you living in who you use to be, either!  You do what you can to make things right and then let it go.  Don’t be surprised when other people can’t let the old you go.  We can read about Jesus experiencing this very think in the book of Mark.  Everyone was so wrapped up in the fact that they knew Him and His family that the Bible tells us that Jesus could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief.  They had known Him while He was in the season of son and carpenter, but they did not know Him during His season as the miracle worker.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? Mark 6:3

Don’t let others keep you bound to one season of your life!

One of my favorite songs is from a Christian band called Mercy Me and the song is entitled “Dear Younger Me.”  My favorite line in it says, “You were never meant to carry this beyond the cross.”  Leave that old you, the sin-filled you, at the cross.  Put it under the blood of Jesus Christ and let it die there.  When we repent of all of our nonsense, when we change our minds to think on other things and live a life for Him, He remembers it no more.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12

Take off the old and put on the new!

Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

It is for Freedom that Christ set us free.  Now walk in it and be purposeful about it.

I have been listening to this song all day, Once and For All – Lauren Daigle.  I hope that if you take time to listen to it, that it will bless you the way it has me today.