Hello friends! I am really excited about what I have to share today, so excited that moments ago I was texting a dear friend about how excited I am to write this. I think it's something that everyone can relate to - boys and girls. It's something that has been weighing so heavy on my heart for a few weeks now. I hope that it speaks to you the way it did to me, I hope that the Lord starts to transform your heart as you read this. I think theres a lot of power in what I'm about to explore. So lets jump right into it!

Shame is one of the biggest killers in our world. Shame destroys people, it destroys dreams, it destroys lives, it destroys families. It kills our confidence, it kills our relationships with people and it kills our relationship with Jesus. Shame is a killer. We let our mistakes ruin our lives. We also have a tendency to label others by the mistakes they've made, we won't let them forget about the bad things they've done, the mistakes they've made. We hold their mistakes over their head like a rain cloud. No wonder shame runs so rapid in our culture today. How are we ever supposed to let go of our mistakes, to learn and move past them if we can't forgive ourselves, if we can't let others around us rid themselves of the shame.

I think the greatest travesty is that we have convinced ourselves that our shame removes us from the love of the Father.

I am no stranger to these thoughts and feelings. Its something that has plagued my life and the lives of so many people around me. A few weeks ago, I was at a youth staff retreat and we took some time to meditate and respond to Colossians 1:15-23 and there is a part that says, "...He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him." This is where this idea sparked. These words hit me like a wall. It was during conversation at that retreat in that moment when it all started to make sense to me.

It's one of the hardest concepts to accept - that He loves us despite our mistakes. In fact, He died, so that He could be in relationship with us even though we are riddled with sin. He died so that he could bridge the gap between a sinful people and His love. He died for us - how stupid is it that we don't get that. He died so He could be in relationship with us, so that He would rid us of our sin.

We are blameless before Him

There are multiple verses in the New and the Old Testament that talk about us being blameless before the Lord and there can be different interpretations of the word blameless, but I really believe that the Lord sees us as blameless before Him in the simplest form. He saved us from our own sin, He doesn't want us to be paralyzed by shame and guilt. He wants us to learn from our mistakes. He wants to help us avoid those mistakes, but He also knows how imperfect we are. He goes before us, He knows our every move, our every mistake before it even happens and He's already forgiven us for them before we even make them. There is nothing that can separate us from the love the Father has for us.

Its time we stop shaming ourselves.

Its time that we stop shaming our friends, family and even strangers.

Its time that we begin to release ourselves from existing shame, and allow the Father to heal our hearts.

I wonder what our lives, churches and communities would look like if we all really embraced what Jesus did for us on the cross. I wonder how it would effect our relationships with others and most importantly our relationship with Christ. If we really grasped what grace and mercy looks like. I think our churches would be healthier. I think our lives would be richer, I think that we would see a growth in churches and in Christians around the world. Im not saying that we can just abuse grace and that we shouldn't feel some sort of frustration or sadness when we sin. Sin is wrong and there needs to be some sort of negativity attached to it. What I'm saying is that we shouldn't dwell on it, we shouldn't let our sin ruin our lives. There comes a point in which we need to move past it, to heal. We do ourselves and the Father a great injustice when we don't allow grace and mercy to flow in our lives. When we allow shame, sin, mistakes to control our lives and we don't accept the grace the Father has for us, we literally spitting on the foot of the cross, in a sense we are saying what Jesus did for us on that day wasn't good enough.

I don't know about you, but I want to live a life worthy of what He did for me. I want to be released of shame. I want to live a joyful life, a life that is full of His grace so that others can see how flawed I am, but how He makes me whole again. That because of Him and His grace and mercy, I am blameless.

I love each and everyone of you, and I am praying that you can forgive yourselves, and that you can really embrace grace of the Father. That you know you are blameless before Him.

you should also listen to this song, I think its an accurate representation of this topic

- Melissa