We have been thinking of how to get rid of inner condemnation. A Harvard professor said that mankind is looking for two things—a song to sing and a creed to believe. The two cannot be separated. The song cannot be sung unless you have an adequate creed, and by adequate creed we mean a creed that provides for the lifting of the inner condemnation, which in turn will allow the song to be sung. The heart full of condemnation refuses to sing—cannot sing, simply cannot.
Many have an adequate creed, but they do not appropriate that creed adequately. They do not believe that all condemnation can be lifted from the soul here and now. A young man in Japan wanted an education, but his father didn’t want to give him an education. He said the son could carry on his business without it. The son married an educated girl who made him feel inferior. He became full of inferiority and self-condemnation and committed suicide with a Bible in his arms.
Many are like that young Japanese man. They are committing sudden or slow spiritual suicide—deteriorating through inner conflicts and condemnations, at the same time hugging a faith which they hug but do not appropriate. They press these promises of deliverance upon their hearts but do not open their hearts to them. Their creed is like the Japanese figure of the Goddess of Mercy with scaffolding around it, undergoing repairs. The goddess herself needed repairs. How could she mend broken hearts? Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever, needs no repairs of His inner or outer life and can repair the inner and outer life by making it free of condemnation.
THE PRAYER
O Jesus, I offer to Thee all that bows me in condemnation. Wash me, cleanse me, from all sense of guilt and condemnation, so I can stand before Thee, myself, and the world every whit whole. Only then can I be a man. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
In Jesus I have a creed to believe and therefore a song to sing.
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One Response
Dare to say to the living Jesus:
“Wash me, cleanse me.”
Admit you’re not “fine.”
Open your heart
And let God’s Light shine
On the things that you hide
And have often denied.
It’s hard to be healed
Unless you let it be revealed
Where you’re hurting.