A Second Look. Mark Hart

He’s not saying to you, “You are the sum of your sins and your failures.” No, God’s truth, to paraphrase words of St. John Paul II, is that you are not the sum of your sins, you are the sum of the Father’s love. Unless you reconcile the past, you’re never going to taste the future God has designed for you. If you keep throwing your bucket down that well of stagnant water, it’s not going to fulfill your thirst as He is.

      One of the greatest things you can do for your spiritual life is to say to Jesus in prayer: “Walk with me, Lord. Walk me back into this episode, sin, room, addiction, struggle [whatever it is]. Walk back with me and show me where You’ve preserved me and protected me. Reveal it to me, Lord. Pour light into my darkness. Show me where I need healing, Lord, and then please come and heal me. Come, Jesus, and save me from my darkness, my past, and myself.”

      The Lord reveals our shame because He loves us and wants to free us. The enemy reveals our shame because he wants to chain us and leave us there.