It was Nailed to the Cross
The tea kettle whistled, telling us it was time to come and join each other at the kitchen table. My mammaw gets out one of her many coffee cups; showing me she is an avid coffee lover-like myself. As the steam escapes the top, she traces her finger around the cup as she tells me about her struggles with thoughts that bombarded her as a young girl- thoughts that said she didn’t measure up, thoughts that said she would never get to be with Jesus in Heaven because she could never live a life that would allow her to be.
She shared with me that she didn’t have peace about this until she sought the Lord and asked Him to show her the truth about His forgiveness. She knew that I was walking through the same struggle as she once did and shared with me the scripture that the Lord gave her many years ago. Opening the Bible and turning the page she read Colossians 2:14 “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
The sin, the shame, the person that we used to be is gone because of what Jesus did at the cross. We do not have to live a perfect life because of the nails. We can take a deep breath and release it walking in the grace of God-knowing that when you are His child you are forgiven because of the cross and the blood of Jesus.
We no longer have to be defined by our sin, but by what Jesus did for us and by who He is.
Friend, I’m not sure if you have wrestled with these thoughts or something similar. Maybe they are ones that tell you you’re not good enough, or ones that say you couldn’t possibly be forgiven because you fall short. I want you to know that God freed you from those thoughts the day you became His. Those thoughts no longer have control over your life.
My mammaw passed away last spring and as I sat in my bedroom floor desperately wanting to be back at that kitchen table listening to her stories and wisdom-I opened a Bible she had passed down to me; I just so happen to stumble across the words she had written in a margin, “Praise the Lord I’m saved.” Tears streamed down my face because, friend, we may struggle with trying to live a life that’s perfect but we can truly lay that aside and can rest in the fact that we can know we are His and He is ours because of the nails.
Many Blessings,
Lauren
