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Tinted Glasses
You may have heard the expression that someone sees the world through rose colored glasses, meaning that someones
view of something is being filtered through an overly positive perception. But some other people see things through black
and negative tinted glasses so to speak, that are not so favorable. They look at the world and themselves through self-hatred
and self-rejection, and they have a shame-based view of everything. You may have been told that you are stupid, ugly, worthless,
or no good growing up, so that is how you now see yourself and how you think that everyone else sees you. We all choose to
either filter what we see through truth, or through the lies that we have been brought up to believe about ourselves.
EPH 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do.
As you learn to recover from addiction, the Holy Spirit will begin to change how you see yourself,
God, and other people, and He will replace those old lies you have believed about yourself with His truth. God loves you dearly
and He accepts you as His cherished creation. He sees you as a finished product made in His image, and not as some failure
or loser. You shouldn't put yourself down or allow others to, you are God's child now. If you have asked God to forgive you
for all that you have done wrong then you are forgiven and clean now, you no longer need to look at yourself as some evil
scum of the earth. You need to accept God's love and approval, not guilt. You are a product of His workmanship and there is
no shame in that.
1JN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness.
If you have blown it in the past, or if you have freshly blown it, then ask God to forgive you and
press on. He loves you absolutely and He will never reject you if you have a problem. God thinks the world of you and He believes
in you as a person because He is the One that is living in you and is helping you to overcome all that needs to be changed.
As long as you keep trusting Him and cooperating with His work every day, there will come a time in your life when your addiction
problem will just become a testimony of how God helped you, rather than a badge of dishonor. God loves you, He forgives you,
and He sees you as His finished product so let Him clean the glasses you have been seeing yourself through, and help you to
see your problem, yourself, and everything else in life through His eyes of truth. The truth sets you free.
JN 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
1JN 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives
in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment,
because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to
do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
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