Nail___to the Cross

One of my favorite scriptures of all time is John 10:10 (AMPC), and it’s one that I come back to for encouragement over and over again. It has completely shifted my perspective and helped me to experience joy in everyday life. Take a look at these powerful words from Jesus:

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

This verse is so encouraging because it reminds us of Jesus’ desire for us to have a beautiful, joy-filled life in Him. But in order to experience the kind of life He wants us to have, the toxic feelings, mindsets and habits that have poisoned our thinking have to go. The good news is, when we figuratively nail those things to the cross with Jesus, we can be truly free and start to experience wholeness in every area of our lives.

Here are a couple of the toxic habits that I’ve learned to nail to the cross:

Blaming Others & Making Excuses

One major thing I needed to nail to the cross was the tendency to blame others and have a lack of responsibility for my own actions. Whenever I was confronted with the reality of my bad behavior, I used to always come back with something like, “Well I can’t help it, this is just the way I am. If you hadn’t done ____, I wouldn’t have responded that way.” I was convinced that every wrong action I took was ultimately someone else’s fault, and that mindset was keeping me from the life God wanted me to have.

In the same way, countless people justify doing what they know to be wrong, or make excuses for not doing what they know to be right. Any of these sound familiar?

“Well, I know I need to forgive, but…”

“Well, I know I shouldn’t complain, but…”

“Well, I know I need to have a better attitude, but…”

One of the things I want you to understand is that there is so much freedom in taking responsibility for your own growth. As I learned this in my own walk with God, I found that the pain of progress is infinitely better than the pain of staying stuck in the habit of blame and excuses.

When you refuse to make or accept the excuses that have been holding you back, you’re being truly honest with yourself and with God. This opens the door for you to receive His help, experience His joy which is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10), and make genuine progress in your walk with Him. He’s already paid the price for your every sin and mistake, and He can’t wait to help you (Isaiah 30:18)!

Holding On to Guilt

While it can be easy to constantly blame others for our bad behavior, we can also struggle with being out of balance in the opposite way, too. Once we realize we can’t accept old excuses any longer, we often feel overwhelmed with guilt and obsessed with fixing our behavior, which is incredibly draining and not at all like the life Jesus wants us to have.

I remember what it was like to be addicted to guilt. In my early walk with God, I often say that I didn’t feel right if I didn’t feel wrong, and it was true! If I ever felt peace for a moment, I thought it was because something was wrong or I was sinning, which only made me feel more like God was mad at me. When the Holy Spirit showed me that holding on to that guilt was my way of trying to pay for what Jesus had already paid for on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), it became real to me that I didn’t have to hold on to it anymore. And neither do you.

I want to encourage you today to nail that guilt to the cross. The next time you sin and ask God for His forgiveness, take a moment to receive it, knowing that He’s forgotten it already (Hebrews 8:12). And if the enemy tries to keep you focused on that sin and make you feel ashamed of yourself, take a moment to remember the truth—that you’ve been forgiven and made new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. – Romans 8:1 (NIV)

Paul truly understood the power of exchanging our old mindsets and habits in Galatians 2:20 (NIV) when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In the same way, when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts and nail the unhealthy habits in our life to the cross, we get to experience a totally new, fresh God-led level of life! 

Whenever God is calling you to let go of something that isn’t good for you, He always wants to give you something so much better. He wants to give you a new beginning in exchange for those old, toxic ways of doing life, and today can be that day!

You can begin again right here, right now by praying this simple prayer out loud and inviting Jesus into your life:

Jesus, I’ve tried to do things on my own for too long and I know it doesn’t work. So today, I give my life to You. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and that You rose from the dead. Thank You for giving me a fresh start! Help me to live my life for You alone. In Your name, amen.

If you just prayed that prayer, we’re so excited to welcome you into God’s family! To help you get started in your walk with Jesus, head to joycemeyer.org/KnowJesus to request a free copy of Joyce’s e-book A New Way of Living.