Here it is, blunt and simple.

I hate anxiety.

I hate depression.

I hate worry and doubt and the low feeling of having no worth.

There are a lot of causes for all these maladies.  Sometimes the ole brain just doesn’t pump out the serotonin as it ought (and shame on every Christian who ever immediately jumped to the conclusion that your feelings are merely the result of some sin you have committed without stopping to consider physiological and psychological factors).

The truth is, no matter the root of your anxiety or depression, God forgives your sin.  You just have to confess your sin.

But, here’s the problem… So often it isn’t others who hold us back, who remind us of our pasts, who trigger fear or anxiety or doubt within us.

As Walt Kelly’s cartoon character Pogo once famously said, “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.”

Ok… I’m a little out of context here.  Kelly was commenting on the environment.  And the Bible tells us we war not against flesh and blood for ours is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12).

All the same, how often are we our own worst enemy?  We allow ourselves to entertain the thoughts that worry us instead of embracing the Truth of God’s Word.  We weigh the what if scenarios as if they carry any real mass.  We fear so much that we face when all we can see is the past, and the here and now, not the future.  And, even what we can see we perceive incompletely, inaccurately, out of focus.

I wrote the other day about the fence of legalism, a barrier that keeps us trapped in unforgiveness, unable to truly live and embrace the freedom that Christ died to give us.  But, the more I think about it, how much time do we spend sitting on that fence?

And I’m not referring to how we treat others.  We can forgive and love in the name of Jesus.  But we can’t accept that same forgiveness or ourselves.  We have difficulty embracing God’s love on our own lives.  

If that’s you, straddling that legalistic fence, constantly convicting yourself of the things the Lord has forgiven you, it’s time.

Today.

Now.

Right now.

Jump down from that fence.

Come down onto the side of grace.

Accept once and for all that you are forgiven, you are loved, you are worthy of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Not because of anything you have done, but because God truly, honestly, really and fully loves you.  You are His child.

Today is the day to accept that fact.  Today, quit listening to what / who the world says you are.  Stop listening to the self condemning voice telling you your worth is diminished.

God Himself came down here and died for you.  Yes, you.  It is that personal.  It is that real.

And Jesus was no fence rider.  He spoke in absolutes.  

And He spoke against legalism.

And legalism is bad whether it comes from others, or from ourselves.

Today, take God at His Word.  Today, get off the fence and bask in the joyous glory of freedom in Christ.

Go.

Do.

Believe.

Embrace.

Love.