(FrontLineMOG)
For some many years I lived under the guilt and shame of my own sin. I thought, "I'm supposed to be a Christian, but I keep acting like I don't know any better. Surely God is fed up with me by this point."
Then one day, God called me out. It was an inner-knowing. It was the Holy Spirit speaking to me. He said, "You're a mess right now, but you know what... You were a mess when you first came to me and I loved you and accepted you then. What makes you think I wouldn't accept you now if you truly came to me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."
Friends, since then I have walked in real freedom from the guilt and shame of my sin. I know that Jesus' blood washes me white as snow and that the Holy Spirit will enable me to live a life that is holy and pleasing to the Lord.
It is messages like these that always hit me in the right spot. After many years of walking with people through their hot mess-ness, so many of God's children live under the burden of shame and guilt.
"Hebrews 10:1 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 2 If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. 3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
I pray that this clip ministers to you as it does to me... every time.