How God's Love Changes Us: Part 3 - Overcoming Grief, Achieving ReconciliationSample
One of the ways we enter kindness is through blessing. We must choose to bless ourselves as the Father does. We have seen in studying self-contempt that evil is in the business of curse (the father of lies in John 8:44, and the thief and killer in John 10:10). Evil does not want kindness and blessing to enter your life and does not want to have God’s voice be in you.
Be prepared to hear lies and intimidation as you journey in kindness through blessing. As Romans 8:1 states, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ,” and we must resist evil’s pull to condemn ourselves. We are called to bless what has been cursed, which includes those things that have been cursed within us and even those things within us that we ourselves have cursed.
The act of blessing is not just positive self-talk but an affirmation of God’s handiwork. You are beauty, you are good, and if that is not how you feel about yourself, you must look at what is blocking you from agreeing with God’s view of you. By naming your beauty and goodness, you are not in any way discounting your sinfulness and failures. Quite the contrary.
By knowing your goodness, you can look more honestly at the dark side that is a part of you but no longer defines you. By blessing the inherent goodness of your creation, you are better equipped to adequately grieve your sin and experience joy where joy is called for.
How do you speak to yourself? Does your language line up with God’s? Remembering “there is now no condemnation,” the voice of God’s blessing should become your own voice.
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About this Plan
If we want to grow beyond the escapist impulse of the prodigal son and the resentful legalism of the elder son, we’ll need to face our grief. Once we do, we’ll find ourselves in the Father Realm, where true healing and reconciliation await.
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