Delores Liesner
Activating Faith in everyday life
Who I Am In Christ #17 – Boldly confident
Heb. 10:17-19 says: He concludes, I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.
That’s one major remodeling! Restaurant Impossible had another kind – fascinating me with the in-your-face, yet caring forcefulness of the chef supervising the 2-day makeover. He took owners, managers, servers, designers, and told them all in varying ways: tell me who you are and what you know. Tell me what strengths you have , then be confident in applying them. When the show was over he did not ask them to tell him about the mistakes they made or who they were before. No. He asked them what they had learned, what they felt stronger about, what they were confident in.
I couldn’t help but think of the Strengths-Finder test when almost every person got angry, defensive, or depressed when their wrong was revealed and they thought they were being told they were useless. Actually they were encouraged to let go of the things they did not do well, and, like the Strengths-Finders test teaches, focus on what needs to be built up. (before that test, I’d tended to waste time focusing on whatever I thought was wrong with me…forgetting that the slate is clean.)
CLEAN.
Think of it. The way (that gap between God and me caused by sin) has been cleared. Cleared means there is nothing there!
I know, I know…God did not remove my free will and I’m likely to mess up again yet, the years of negative berating followed by devaluing self-talk were all washed away 
knowing that Yahweh, Elohim, the Almighty I AM, thought me worth dying for. Wow.
That gives me a whole new view of myself – who I am IN Christ.
To rightly see myself as God sees me is not an ego-boost, or a help to build up my self-esteem. It’s a reality check to realize and admit my weakness and inadequacy; and to accept that God truly knows all about me and loves me just as I am. And as I will be.
You see, God has predestined me to be conformed to the image of His son, so he can see the results of His “Heavenly Makeover” while I’m still covered in the slimy green sea-weed mud pack of self.
To rightly see myself as God sees me In Christ, is to emanate confidence. In my savior, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. He keeps His word so I can be confident about my future, and I can say boldy:
In Christ I have. In Christ I will. In Christ I can. In Christ I am.
Be the Miracle! – with journaling pages
Delores Liesner: Author
American Christian Fiction Writers Association
Delores Liesner 