The Great Exchange

From Nothing to Prove by Jeannie Allen on YouVersion

Enjoying His grace does cost us something. One thing: death. Death of our old selves. Death of our pride. Death of thinking we can be enough on our own. It’s hard; it’s messy. You will hate it for a moment. But you know what happens in your soul? You get free. You know what happens when you are free? Other people are set free.

When you put your dirt out first, everybody else gets to do the same. It’s contagious. Other people are freed through our honesty and confession. We don’t need to tell the world; we just need to tell a few warrior friends who won’t settle for our being plastic or fake.

We expose our dirt because Jesus has the power to wash it and free us from bondage to it. God’s grace is exquisite and enough for the dirt that seems impossible to clean.

Peter loved so passionately, and he made some of the biggest mistakes. He was prideful and passionate. We are just like Peter.

And Jesus knows what Peter doesn’t know yet. You do need this. You do need my forgiveness. You don’t even know what you are capable of. But you need this forgiveness today.

• I wash your fear that stops you from obeying.
• I wash your shame that makes you hide.
• I wash your performance that you think proves your worth.
• I wash your arrogance that resists your need of forgiveness.
• I wash your feet and set them on My path—a path of service, a path of love, a path of rejection, a path of suffering, a path of joy, a path of setting people free.

A few hours after He washed the feet of Peter, Jesus chose to die on the cross to wash all our filth and dirt away. In one violent costly act, He washed us of all our sin. We were needy, and Christ paid the penalty of our sin so that we would be with Him forever. His blood in exchange for ours.

Repent and believe. This is what it looks like to fill our souls with streams of living water, bread that does not ever leave us hungry again, and light that takes over the darkness.

We are not defined by our worst or our best; we are defined by our God.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. – 1 John 1:6–8

We put out our dirt and we let jesus wash it and then we go tell everybody about it.

Is your heart hard? Does God feel distant? This is the road back. Repent and believe.