I sometimes struggle with posting about my faith. I don’t ever want to come off as someone failing to acknowledge they’ve fallen short, continuing to fall short on a daily basis. Truth be told, I think that’s why a lot of people struggle with speaking about their faith. No one wants to come off as self righteous! I never want to seem like I live in a house I believe I’ve built myself. My life wasn’t built with my own hands, my own might, nor my own strength. This house was built from grace.

I’m not any more worthy of speaking about my faith or my God than anyone else. I’m not worthy, but Jesus is! Jesus is worthy of being spoken of, and because of His abundant grace, I don’t have to quiet myself in shame of my past.

The truth is, I have a past; we all do. I did a lot of things in my past I’m not proud of. I didn’t treat my body like the temple it is; I didn’t guard my heart nor my mind. I allowed people to tear me down to the point where I was barely even alive. What happens when you tear down a house? You’re left with nothing but its foundation, right? My foundation was Christ. No matter how poorly my actions aligned with my beliefs, I always had faith, and that faith led me down the path to eventual full surrender. I believe to my core it was that faith that gave God permission to absolutely wreck me, and I thank Him every day that He did.

When we move out, God can move in.

We have to move out of our old home in order for God to move in. The problem is, we become so accustomed to our pain, our shame, our trauma, our abuse—even our self inflicted abuse, that we begin to see it as safe. We become content to stay where we are, and we avoid change; we avoid moving!

This is exactly what happened with me. God literally had to wreck my house, completely tear me down until I had nothing anymore that I once found my confidence in. It wasn’t until God removed every single one of these things from my life, these things that I placed my identity in, that I was able to be rebuilt.

“Trying to use my past against me is like trying to break into my old home. I don’t live there anymore, and that’s not my stuff.” -unknown

The beauty of God’s grace lies in the fact that we have the power, or rather God gives us the power to get up and move out. Even after we have destroyed our homes and everything in them, we can walk away and move into a new home with new walls, new floors, and new stuff. God’s grace makes everything new!

I hope this inspires someone out there to move out today—to step out of their shame and into God’s abundant grace. It’s through His grace, we can better learn how to give it to others. Through His grace, we learn to love ourselves in a way we never have before. It’s through His grace, we are given the key to a home that can never be torn back down.