Prodigal: Sometimes we don’t get things right.

Me: But that is why God has given us grace.

This is from the book Reclaiming Your Heart by Denise Hildreth Jones

The lie of the shamed heart strikes at the very core of who we believe we are, trying to convince us that God can’t love or use us because we’re just no good. Now this may sound similar to the performing heart and the critical heart. And indeed there are similarities, but there are also important distinctions.

The lie of the performing heart is I’m not enough the way God made me…so I have to fake it. A discomfort with our authentic heart leads us to act as if we were someone else.

The lie of the critical heart is God wants me to get it right. Our misconception about God’s expectations results in an exaggerated focus on who is right and who is wrong.

But the shamed heart is haunted by an even more basic sense of being damaged or inferior goods–unworthy, valueless, unsuitable, even soiled. And doesn’t’ the enemy love to accuse us of being just that? He knows that the more we believe it, the less impact we can make for the Kingdom of God.

So what have we forgotten in this lie? We have forgotten that we are made in God’s image.

John 8:36

Because “if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through”

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org