Are you ready for some good news?
The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, has a beautiful plan for your life and He wants to guide you in it every day!
As I continue reflecting on the Holy Spirit, today’s devotional explores the beauty and simplicity of being led by God.
One obstacle to being led by the Spirit is that too often we carry distorted images of ourselves. We need to know that we are sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure and without hope except in his sovereign mercy. That is true. But the gospel announces to us that our salvation is not in our own righteousness; our salvation is in the righteousness of Jesus. When you are in Christ, you are no longer labeled by God as a miserable sinner; you are called a saint. If our minds have a filter of distorted thinking about our life, our past, or our place in the world, we will distort what we hear.
Shame is a central, diabolical strategy designed to keep us far from God and to distort everything we hear from God. We say, “Something in me just doesn’t quite measure up. I need to do more. I am not quite good enough yet.” Early in our marriage, I would often misinterpret something Anne would say. For example, Anne would say, “The trash needs to go out,” but I’d hear: “You haven’t done enough,” which would inevitably lead to, “You aren’t a good husband.”
Our emotional wounds often make us misinterpret what people are saying. This is only heightened with our relationship with God. People who have a shame filter hear every word at church and read every page of the Bible as if it is saying, “You are not good enough yet.”
The truth is that, resting in the finished work of Jesus, I am clean and free. Though I stumble and though I need to grow, I am accepted in the beloved and living out of that assurance. The more that we are healed, the more we will discern the leading of the Spirit. Think much of the love and mercies of God for you that your soul might be healed. God’s with you. God’s leading you. You can recognize His gracious leading every day. And that’s the Gospel.
