Take a few deep breaths to center your heart and your mind as you prepare to meet with God.

Meditation

The middle of Psalm 46 says, “The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble! God’s voice thunders, and the earth melts! The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us.” Take a moment and think about how big and powerful God is.

While the middle of Psalm 46 speaks those big, powerful words about God, it starts with this: “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” Take a moment and think about how God, in all his power and glory, reaches down to us out of love and care.

Teaching

“Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)

If anyone wants to follow Jesus, they have to receive a new identity and live a different life. Most of us live our lives avoiding pain, hardship, and shame at all costs, sometimes choosing a selfish option in the interest of safety and security. Our identity can be so easily found solely in our ability and accomplishments, or our brokenness and faults.

In these words from Jesus, He redefines the lives of His followers as people who take action, not just learning new knowledge, and has suffering as a tool for growth in God’s plan for them. Jesus holds these truths in contrast to something worth more—worth your actions, and worth your suffering—the good news. This good news is that Jesus came to connect us to the Father. The good news is that Jesus takes our shame and reclaims us as sons and daughters of God. 

Jesus’ words end with a warning that if we are ashamed to be attached to him and long to be separated, the Father will fulfill our wish and allow that. The word “shame” is at the center of the word “ashamed”, and shame is all about identity. Guilt is a response to something done wrong. Shame is the received identity of that transgression. Our shame is removed by Jesus’ work, and our identity is reclaimed as we hide in his righteousness and follow in his footsteps, even when it leads to suffering. But to all those who would choose to follow, the good news of Jesus is this: he took action and took on the pain, suffering to bring this good news to me and to you. In Jesus, you are not what your wrongdoings have made you—you are what He has reclaimed you to be.

Examination

2 Corinthians 5 says this: “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one point we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Jesus calls us to walk out of shame into a new identity in Him. Take a moment and picture your shame washing away in Jesus’ oceans of mercy for those who follow Him.

Memory Verse

Throughout your day today, take 2 Corinthians 5:17 with you, which says,

“Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17b)