Facebook Party winners announced in the post below this one. 🙂
Today, my friend Kimberly is here to openly share her struggles with condemnation and how it has made her see herself so differently than God does. She’s written something for us below, but first I want to share this powerful 2 minute video she filmed with her church to capture what God was teaching her about the destruction of condemnation and the healing power of His grace:
{If you are reading this post via email, click here to return to my blog to watch the video.}
From Kimberly…
A few years ago, if you would have asked me if I believed that God loved me, I would have told you, “Yes.” Realizing His great love for me has been one of the sweetest truths I have ever come to know.
BUT, if you had asked me if I believed God could use me or would even WANT to use me… well, I would have hemmed and hawed and never really landed on an exact yes or no. Why? Because I felt unusable. My sins and mistakes disqualified me. I looked at myself and saw all of my flaws. I saw deep insecurities. I saw my too often short temper. I saw a lack of discipline, a lack of Biblical knowledge. I saw lack upon lack, failure upon failure.
“Jesus loves me? Yes. He died for me. But Jesus would like to use me. Ummmm…seriously? I think not.”
I love how He corrects our wrong thinking through His Word.
As I sat reading the Bible one day, heart heavy from discouragement, God led me to read John 3:17. It comes right after John 3:16, one of the earliest verses we ever learn about how God loved the world so much He sent His only Son Jesus to die for us so that, believing in Him, we could have eternal life. John 3:17 goes on to tell us more:
“For God did not send His Son Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
I felt the Lord urging me to look up the definition the words “condemn.”
Condemn- 1. to pass an adverse judgement on; disapprove of strongly, censure; 2. a) to declare to be guilty of wrongdoing; convict b) to pass judicial sentence on; inflict a penalty upon c) to doom; 3. to declare (property) legally appropriated for public use; 4. to declare unfit for use or service. (Webster’s Dictionary)
That was exactly how I felt. Unsafe. Unlovely. Unusable.
Convinced that Jesus wanted to wrap caution tape around my life to keep people back. “Stay away from this one. I love her, but she’s still too messed up to be of any use to me. Better stand clear of her.”
The words of John 3:17 coupled with the last definition released a flood of truth and healing over my heart. The Father was whispering tenderly to me. He did not see me as I saw myself. He did not see a condemned building…someone dangerous. Someone unlovely. Someone unusable. He saw someone He loved so much that He would send His only Son to die a shameful and excruciating death for her. He sent His Son to save me. To forgive me. To heal me. To set me free, fill me up, and USE me.
The tears began to flow as He let me know that I am usable. And not only does He find me usable. He wants to use me. I am not the same woman I was 13 years ago.
- I have been forgiven of all of my sins. (1 John 1:9) (even the “big bad” ones)
- I am a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- I am complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10)
- I have purpose in Him. (Ephesians 2:10)
Let these sweet truths wash over you today. Jesus did not come to label you unusable. He loves you and He has a purpose for your life that is of great use to His kingdom!
Thank you so much Kimberly for sharing your heart and being so honest with us today. I got so much encouragement from your transparency and writing. So many of us can relate to what you shared.
Let’s Connect: So friends…How about you? Do you believe God loves you, yet struggle to believe He could ever use you? Do you struggle to believe He would want to use when you look at your flaws and failures? I’m so thankful for Kim’s message that sets the stage for some real life transparency and hope today.
Do you know someone who feels condemned and like God can’t use them or love them? I’d love to share the truth of God’s unfailing love with them. My book is on sale today through May 11 for $6.99 at Lifeway.com! I know many of you have given it to friends and I want you to be able to do that more now than ever {especially at this price!} after watching the redeeming work Jesus is doing in your lives as we read it together. Click here if you’d like to get a copy for 50% off .
{PS. Save your receipt! I’ll be offering some FREE resources to those who buy a copy of A Confident Herat in May. Working on the details of the special promotion and will post them here by the weekend!}
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to let you all know that this verse was right on time for me too. What really hits me is John 3:18 because it says: “There is no judgment against (Cathy) who believes in Him…” That seals the deal for me, I believe so I am not condemned! 🙂 Now that’s worth smiling about!
Lord,
I’m praying that you would write this verse on our hearts! In Jesus Name
This was so inspiring and encouraging to watch and hear from Kimberly! I was thinking, she thought God couldn’t use her – now look at her! She just encouraged hundreds of women! That is so our God!
Thanks Renee! The book is so amazingly freeing!
Its hard to believe that God truly loves me because I can’t see him. Its hard for me to have faith in someone I can’t see. God is trying to teach me that but its taking me a long time to truly grasp that.
Yes Renee and Kimberly, I absolutely can relate. I felt as if she was writing my story when I read this. I just had a moment on yesterday where I broke down and weeped because of the feelings of inadequacy, failure, and condemnation that I feel. When will the old habits die, when will I be good enough, what is wrong with me (and I am not a young woman or new to Christ)? Yet every time I feel empowered and bold enough to do the work of the Lord, it gets stolen away by something I’ve said or done or not done. I am tired but I wait patiently on the Lord. My head knows better because of the Word of God, yet my heart is nowhere near this place of acceptance. I have prayed, surrendered and begged God to renew my mind and to transform me that I might be used as an instrument of His Glory. You give me hope and I won’t give in and let Satan win. Yet I am so weary. Please pray for me. I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. Lord, hear my plea……
That definition strikes me, too. To be condemned means to not be able to be used for service. Not condemnedmeans He can use me despite my bbrokered. WOW!!!!
The words conviction and condemnation as verbs have often been used interchangeably to describe criminals. Chapter 7 truly showed me the different meanings of them both…Kimberly, your video message and post made it real! Your definition of condemned tied this all together. I also explored the word conviction as a noun and the positive strength it holds when we do all things with conviction and belief in our Lord Jesus Christ…so following the instruction of the Holy Spirit! This book offers us so much! Thank you Renee!
Every week I think this is the best chapter. This week answered one of my deepest fears. I know when I was Born Again. I was forgiven. Try I might I still keep messing up. Sometimes I just do the wrong thing without trying for do the right thing. But she said even those sins are forgiven and I can still be used by God. I am a grandmother. I should be wiser. Wisdom does not come with age. Just more hair color. Thank you so much. I really need this. I really thought God has given up on me for good. I now have hope again. Thank you so very much.
God bless you. Fawn
Good morning sisters. There is so much in chapter 7 that speaks to me in the areas of condemnation, self doubt, failure, etc.
Oh how sometimes I feel that way – being a failure and unusable but I thank God for the hope He place in us. I am so encourage that failure is not final. Sometimes how God was presented to us in our childhood (that God will punish us and there seemed to be no room for love and restoration) we continue to view Him (in a negative way) in our adult years even though we are saved. This causes us to feel condemned. But whose I am and what God has placed in me/us is far different and far better than what we think of ourselves. If we could get passed that with the divine help of Jesus, then what God has planted within us we will shine (gold). But the mock and dirt of self-doubt, what people and the devil say about us have crippled us and they have to be removed. That is why deliverance and also restoration are always needed.
Thanks be to God for sessions like these and for pastors – showing us there is a way out through Jesus Christ even though we have to go through the crushing, pressing and burning out experiences we will come forth as pure gold – that’s what the Gold Miner (Jesus) says and we believe Him, Amen!!
Thank God that Jesus can stoop down where we are and lift us up again because sometimes we feel that we are alone in the failures. Peter (the stone) felt that way (John 21) but the Word “(Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”) that God revealed through Peter before he denied Jesus is that only Rock on which the Church of Jesus Christ stands and is built upon. So Jesus said “upon this rock, the word that you spoke Peter, upon this premise (foundation, principle, basis, assertion), I will build my church, upon that rock, upon that statement that flesh and blood did not reveal unto you, I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” That is why although Peter failed, the words (The Rock) that he spoke stood the test of times even in our lives. Peter got up and so can we because Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God is our Burden Bearer. Thank God we can trust Him.
Also I thank God that Jesus stooped down (came down to earth) to make us great. Great over our accusers (the self doubts, satan, low self esteem, rejection, inferiority complex, fears failures).
Jesus I thank you that you give us that assuredness (if there’s such a word), that hope, that confidence and we will not cast it away.
Keep praying for each other we all need it.
Thank you, Kimberly, for sharing such a powerful message! It’s amazing how condemned we can feel after someone has spoken hurtful words to us. Whoever said the words, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” obviously didn’t know what they were talking about! Emotional wounds can hurt worse than physical wounds! I grew up with a lot of criticism and felt myself shrinking daily. Convinced I was ugly, useless, inadequate, unwanted, couldn’t say or do anything right, I lived my life as an “apology” to those around me. I felt sorry for them that they had to be around me! What an awful way to live!!! Thankfully, a friend “tricked” me into her office for counseling! Her words of encouragement and truth based on the Word of God began to break through the prison walls of my heart and mind. Though the process of healing was often slow, it has been steady. Sometimes I would grow by leaps and bounds, other times, at a snail’s pace. Through it all, God has been faithful. He is my best cheerleader! The mistakes I made with my children, in my marriage, and in other relationships have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb! Be encouraged, dear sisters! There is hope and healing through Jesus Christ! The words of Renee and Kimberly, as well as the other guest speakers, are true! Trust in the Lord and put into practice the things we are learning here. You won’t be disappointed! Instead, you will be set free!!!! Love to you all.
Thanks, Kimberly, for sharing. I have often felt that I will struggle through this time on earth and make it to heaven, but will just squeak by. But you remind us that God’s strength is made known IN OUR WEAKNESS! So, our brokenness is a canvass on which God can create His beautiful masterpieces! Mixing my metaphors here, but you get the idea. It ties in so well with Renee’s picture of failing forward, using our failings, sins, and mistakes to remind us to listen to God, and to obey His Spirit, and to believe what He says about us, rather than listening to the enemy woo us into the depths of despair.
Thank you, Jesus, that You did not come into the world to condemn me, but that through You, I might be saved! Saved for the good works that You have prepared in advance for me!
Thank you so much for sharing. I too had never looked at that verse that way before. Too often we read John 3:16 and stop there without going any further.
Please include my husband in your prayers today. He is having surgery for removal of cancerous bladder tumors. We are praying that they have not spread past the bladder lining. The support and kindness that has been posted throughout this study is awesome! Blessings to all.
Lifting you and your husband up right now, Elaine!
I want to say I truly thank you for this message today and for this Bible study. I am a survivor of sexual abuse and have recently felt a tugging on my heart to use a craft (lampworking beads) to share what Jesus has done for me. I have struggled with the thoughts that I am not the one to do this. This Bible study has helped me in my healing and I am starting to see that I am just the one to share my testimony.
Reading your comment brings tears to my eyes. And I just want to cheer, “Yes! Yes – you are just the one to bring your testimony!” I heard Chip Ingram once say that we are trophies of God’s grace. Our lives get to declare to the world not how good or awesome we are – but how amazing HIS love is, how amazing He is. You are a trophy of His grace, and I know He wants to bless others through you. Praying for you as you use your God-given gifts and talents to offer hope and healing to others. I think that is just wonderful. I am so glad He led you to Renee’s study. I am so thankful He never stops pursuing us with His love.
Kimberly, thank you so much for sharing! You wrote everything I feel as to the reasons why I have questioned if God could use me. I have painted a poor self image of myself and I must remember that I am not who I was, I am a new creation and I thank God that I am not the person I used to be.
Thank you again for sharing!
I am ever so thankful for how His Word changes us and encourages us, how it redirects us and challenges us and how He just plain old LOVES on us through it. Blessings to you as you trust in all that He says about you in His Word!
Thanks Kimberly for reminding me of that verse . I grew up memorizing and teaching John 3:16. and never paid much attention to verse 17. What powerful verse that really touched my heart this morning. How often we r brought up and bring up generations by being condemned or condemn…. I am so glad that God came to love us for who were are and in Him we r made perfect. What an awesome God we serve
I love that you pointed out how we are so often brought up under condemnation and then bring up generations under condemnation. One thing I pray is that God will help me to not use shame with my girls – that I will parent them as He parents me. He brings correction and He gives direction, but He does so with love and grace and mercy and wisdom. He is so loving and He never uses condemnation. Praying He breaks the “shame” cycles off of all of our families! Blessings, K
This has been a thought provoking video and chapter. It has touched my heart. I came home after work yesterday feeling very condemned for things I had failed to finish/ do and for things some of my co-workers felt I had failed to do as part of my job. As I read part of the chapter, Renee also brought up John 3:17. What she wrote and what Kimberly has said touched my heart about not being condemned. I have read this verse before but somehow it applied to “the world” but not to me. Through this, I have realized how much I use condemning words against myself even when it is unwarranted. I rejoice. God does not condemn me. He has forgiven me and those thoughts are just satan lying to me to keep me from being used by God and from finding victory in Him. I am a beautiful, strong, confident woman that God has used, is using and will continue to use – flaws and all. That is what God sees – the beauty that He created. He loves me as I am and accepts me too. He also loves me enough to challenge my wrong thinking and desires to see me become more like Him.
Awesome! Love how you are choosing to believe what HE says about you! 🙂
Thanks Kimberly! I definitely was not there on Tuesday. I was wallowing in the pit of condemnation, self-pity and self-hatred feeling like I had failed again. I’m tired of doing that. I realize that in doing that, in a way I am telling God that He is a liar. He is not. He has blessed me so much. I want to cling to Him and the Truth. I’m sick of listening to lies from my enemy. The last few months have been huge growth times in my relationship with Him. This study came along at the perfect time. 🙂