"His Goodness suffereth us never to be alone, but lastingly He is with us, and tenderly He excuseth us, and ever shieldeth us from blame.."
Julian of Norwich (Ch. 80)
We can worry and fret over our failures and be haunted by shame and feelings of unworthiness. But God does not see us as unworthy or shameful or even sinful. God sees us for who we really are, not who lying voices of accusation or condemnation may say we are. God sees our true nature and sees that we are simply humans, the humans that He made in His own image and called "very good." That designation has never changed. It isn't that Christ had to come and change who we inherently are as humans. There was nothing ever wrong with our makeup or design as human beings. Christ came to remove the veil over our eyes that prevented us from seeing our true beauty and goodness and worth as God's creation, as children of God. This veil over our eyes was a veil of delusion and lies, lies that told us we were inferior, shameful, not like God, unworthy, lacking, alienated from God, rejected, or sinful. These lies also told us that God was angry with us, disappointed with us, judging or condemning us, and punishing us. Christ removed the lies or veil by showing us the true character of God - that He is good and loving - and also how God truly feels about humanity - that we are good and lovely!
Christ not only died and rose for us, taking us with Him through death to all the lies and delusion and their effects, and up into His resurrected and heavenly life, but He also stays within us through His Spirit every single day, empowering us and reminding us of the truth. The Spirit of truth is in us, always calling to our minds the truth about God being all love and the truth about us being God's beloved children. The Holy Spirit never leaves us alone, so even when we forget about the Spirit's presence or get confused by lies and trapped in sin, the Spirit stays right there with us, reminding us of our union with Christ and our eternal and unbreakable communion with Him. The Holy Spirit always excuses us, just as Jesus did on the cross, saying we don't know what we are doing when we fail. And the Spirit always shields us from blame. The old lying voices that accuse us, tell us we are unworthy, try to shame and blame us, and tell us we are awful and pathetic, those lying voices are no match for the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit continually works to defend us against those voices, to block those lies and shield our hearts from them, by continually telling us the truth: we are one with God, loved by God, good and lovable children of God, and worth being around. The Holy Spirit is not criticizing us, judging us, pointing out our faults, or condemning us; the Holy Spirit is shielding us and protecting us from judgment and condemnation, shielding us from the lie that we would ever be shameful or unworthy of love! Our mistakes do not make us awful, sinful, unworthy or shameful. Our mistakes simply mean we are human. We are perfectly imperfect and that is okay. God loves us and doesn't demand perfection, just like no good parent would demand that of a child. God wants us to know that we are His beautifully designed children, worthy of love, honored and precious, made with a good nature, accepted and enbraced. God is a good Parent, who points out the best in His children and shields them from harmful lies!
“When that one I have spoken to you about comes—the Spirit of truth—he will guide you into everything that is true....He will bring glory to me for he will draw on my truth and reveal it to you. Whatever the Father possesses is also mine; that is why I tell you that he will draw on my truth and will show it to you."
John 16;13-15 (PHP)
A Prayer: Thank You, Holy Spirit, for reminding me of the truth and dispelling all lies!