Freedom

It is Mother’s Day and I am grateful for the sober live I live today in Christ and in recovery. Though I am happy, my relationship with my own mother and my daughter is healthy today, I seem to feel a yearning for more. Is it for another greeting card or more texts wishing me "Happy Mother's Day?"

Perhaps the desire to have more is the longing to be ‘complete' because some need remains unmet and some goal unattainable. It is a natural part of the recovery process. The catch though is that I have pledged to live in the ‘supernatural’ - in the kingdom of God. So why is it then that with all His blessings the shameful sense of loss still lingers?

*I read a devotion this morning that said early experiences with shame in childhood are tough to uproot. "First in is often last out.” For example, memories of bullying, failing an exam or being left back a grade often result in shame. Another common source of shame in our culture is sexual abuse. I know this well and it has only been an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ and His finished work at the cross that has freed me from the pain of the horrible scourge of abuse and trauma.

That shame is no longer mine because Christ has taken my shame when He endured the awful scourging for my sake. So, I can rejoice today. Feelings are not always an accurate barometer of the climate in my heart. It’s bright and sunny!

If you’re holding a sense of remorse or guilt, take a moment to write about it. No one has to read it but you and Jesus. Letting it out takes the steam out of it so it won't load you down or take the wind out of your sails. Go for God because Jesus has liberated us from shame!

1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."

Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Luke 4:18 (KJV)