"Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out," Acts 3:19

You are The Bride of Christ.

You have been carved from His Tree of Shame & Humility.

I woke at 3am. Wide awake like I've enjoyed a full night sleep. Though I did crash from exhaustion early last night, I always know my  Beloved, my Savior, my Treasure is up to something when He wakes me at Night. I love the ministry and mystery of the Holy Spirit...

Now that you know I was reading at 3am you won't be surprised by how I received the inspiration for this post...

The Lord whispered to my heart the above penned: "You are the Bride of Christ. You have been carved from His Tree of Shame and Humility ..."

I began reading many scriptures regarding shame and guilt. Every human deals with regret on some level, some more than others. I was trying to capture the essence of where God was taking my pen when I read Acts 3:19. My 3 AM eyes saw, a bit on the groggy side, saw "...that your sins may be bottled" instead of "blotted".

I immeidately had a vision in my imagination of pirates or a sea adventure where someone is distress places a note in a glass bottle, hurls it into the sea with hopes that it will be found and their life rescued or spared from tragedy...

I immediately thought of Micah 7:19 which assures us that our sins are tossed into the sea never to be remembered again. I like to call God's Sea "Forgotten".

Think about it.

A note written and then encapsulated in a bottle and tossed into the ocean is nearly impossible to retrieve. Only by the miraculous touch of heaven could such a thing be found in a timely manner to rescue the distressed and distraught sender. Only God could do such a thing-which makes the story all the more an adventure and thrilling and you sit on pins and needles as you absorb it. That's what makes the story exciting. What will happen? How will it happen? When? But surely it happens and the story never disappoints.

What weighs on you? What tugs on your heart and mind? What sensitivities are hidden within? Are there dark areas of your heart waiting for this post to shed some Light there in to rub it clean and set you free in your thinking?

You have many needs in your life, but you have no need to walk about with shame in your life. What is shame anyway? Shame is rehearsed memories of old sins within yourself or against yourself or against others. Shame can make people feel less than or unworthy. Shame shuns and isolates.

Shame is not from God.

Christ came to take your grief so you could live a triumphant and Joy filled life. 

You were once bound with sin. But Christ nailed it by the Power of Love and killed it. Once that happened our shame was bottled and tossed, as though it were lost at sea never to be retrieved again because your Rescuer has no need of it. He will not even look for it. He has already forgotten it. Instead, He is completely fixated and focused on you.

So let go of that old stuff, don't let it build a filter of how you see and perceive the world around you today. Sure, you've had hurts, setbacks and disappointments. But that was yesterday. God is beside you. Allow His Heart to enfold you into His Banner of Love. It drapes over you that He might sing praises for all the gold He sees your heart holds. Unlike that bottle, you are a most prized possession in His Kingdom. Allow Him to compliment your life. ~Nicole