Disciple: Dear X

The song talks about pain, shame, hate and anger as things that keep coming around to tempt us into diving back into them.

Pain: Not a sin in itself, but it most often times causes us to be insecure or hold resentment. It's difficult to let go of pain because it feels like we are saying that the offense is "ok". Forgiving is not saying the offense was right. Forgiving makes us free. Then, even though we can escape the bonds of sin through salvation's grace, the temptation to fall back into unforgiveness is always there. It never goes away from us. We are cleared from iniquities but we can still fall back into them. Insecurity keeps us from reaching our full potential. 

Shame: not a sin, but a tool used against us. What do you feel with shame? Unworthiness, embarrassment...those two can keep us from doing what Hebrews 10:22 says we can do.

Hebrews 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 

How does the feeling of unworthiness and embarrassment affect us spiritually? It keeps us from feeling like we can't have an intimate relationship with God. It keeps us feeling like we have to stay at a distance or that we are undeserving or won't "qualify" for grace. Shame is a tool used against us because satan knows what kind of authoritive transformation occurs in us when we confidently approach God without shame. "Safe in your arms": Familiarity is comforting even if we are miserable in it. We either don't know that there is life outside of shame or we are too hesitant to let it go. Shame tells us that no one will want us, that we are worthless, that the only safety is to not venture past ourselves. All lies....and it too always seems to want to loom over our heads reminding us, but we don't have to accept it. Realize that shame is not yours to keep as some scarlet letter. It's a tool against you. Get righteously mad at that.

Hate: I remember feeling so alive in my hate. It gave me purpose. It gave me motivation. I got to feel something that was beyond me. Heck, it let me feel something when I was numb to everything. I created it with meditation and music so that I could soak in it. It only destroys though and it starts with you. No matter how you think it is aimed at someone/something else or how it is deserved, it destroys you first. Most importanyly, look at what God's word says about it. He equates hating to murder. 

1 John 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Anger: Again, I use to thrive on anger as soo many people do. It's easy to attain. It's always faithful to show up just in time. Again, it gave me purpose and feeling. I was addicted to how it fueled my hate. It's a piercing burning tool in our hands that will only be used against ourselves. 

Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil

Some more supportive scripture

Romans 6:14     for sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

1 Peter 5:8     Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 

Psalm 18:40    Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. [Again, our enemy is not of earth; therefore, not people. Our enemy is of the spiritual realm. It is satan. He hates us. He is the lier, the destroyer, and the wicked.THAT'S who we fight against. NOT each other.

Psalm 107:20    He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Deuteronomy 3: 22    Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you.

James 4: 3, 7, 10  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.