Deep Hurt, Deep Healing: Finding a New Identity in Christ
Deep Hurt, Deep Healing
…finding a new identity in Christ
This is Part Three in my blog series on Deep Hurt, Deep Healing. Be sure to track back to read Parts 1 & 2 where I define shame and show how it manifests in our lives.
Shame is the bad news. Now it's time for some GOOD NEWS. Let's move on to the "Deep Healing" part of this equation. Deep Healing starts with a new identity in Christ.
If you've found it hard to learn about shame, you are not alone. No one likes to look at their feelings of weakness and inadequacy… their sense of not measuring up or being good enough. But it’s important to see what shame does to us so we can rise above it.
God Heals Our Shame
In Part One and Two of this series, I walked through Genesis 2 and 3 to understand shame and its impact. I like what follows just a few verses later:
And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Genesis 3:21
There was a consequence for the disobedience of Adam and Eve. But what verse 21 tells me is that God wanted to heal their shame. He helped them in the "meantime." Animal skins weren’t the final answer. But their covering was the start to their healing.
By covering Adam and Eve, God showed that he cared about their condition. He understood the pain of their shame and he wanted to do something about it. That's true for us as well. The rest of the Bible tells the story of what God did to help us recover the glory that was lost in the Garden.
Restoring Lost Glory
How do we reclaim the glory that Adam and Eve lost? How do we find Deep Healing? Lots of self-help books address the pain of shame. Many of them are helpful but they often miss the true source of healing. You can’t find healing just by looking in the mirror and telling yourself how valuable you are. I mean, how can I feel good about myself if everything I touch turns to dirt? I can only psych myself up for so long with positive affirmations. My next failure only serves as a reminder of my shame.
If I want to find healing I need to look beyond myself. So, if you want to find deep healing, don’t move away from people, or toward them, or against them like I mentioned in my last post. Move toward God to receive a new identity in Christ. It's necessary to release your shame based identity and see yourself with new eyes.
Below, I’ve listed two of four things necessary to receive from God in order to find deep healing. Now, this is just a road map. I won't take the space to go in-depth. My books do that. But I want to at least point you in the right direction so you know how to pursue deep healing in coming days.
To Find Deep Healing Receive God's Love
First, if you want deep healing, receive God’s love. You might be thinking, “This is so basic. Tell me something I don’t know.” But that’s the problem: we know these things, but we only know them intellectually. We don’t know them experimentally. We need to pursue God until we are convinced of God’s love and the other three things I’m going to tell you.
The apostle Paul helps us to understand God’s love by saying:
If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who would dare to accuse us if God has chosen us for his own? No one—for God himself has given us his ultimate approval by calling us righteous. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died FOR US and was raised to life FOR US, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading FOR US.
Can anything ever separate us from God’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? ...No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing ...will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39
These verses might be the best shame-busters in the entire Bible. You might want to read them every morning until you are convinced of God’s love.
To Find Deep Healing Receive God's Forgiveness
The second thing we need to receive from God is his forgiveness. God doesn’t want us to live a life of regret, always looking backwards, and continually beating ourselves up over our past. He wants to give us a fresh start. He wants us to turn away from our past and look to the future with a new identity in Christ. That new identity starts with forgiveness.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and rto cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
Notice that God not only forgives us, meaning he won’t punish us for our behavior or hold our past against us, but God cleanses us. He removes the offense. He takes it off our record. And he cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness. That’s why we know that we are perfect in his sight because when God cleans something, he doesn’t leave a spot. It’s perfect.
Sometimes we have trouble receiving God’s forgiveness because we don’t think it’s fair. We don’t think God should forgive us. So I like how John throws in the word “just” here. God is not only faithful...he’s just. That means, it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing because Jesus died so we might be forgiven. It IS just.
To learn what else is required to receive a new identity in Christ move to the final post in this series.
To learn more about deep hurt and deep healing, check out my book Healing the Hurts of Your Past.
To learn more about God's forgiveness, you might find my book, Starting Over, to be helpful as well.
Subscribe to readingremy.com on the home page and receive the first chapter to my book, STUCK… how to overcome anger, forgive, and reclaim your life.