Ever feel like there’s something wrong with you even when you didn’t do something wrong? Lewis Smedes helps put that feeling into words in his book Shame & Grace. He wrote:
“Guilt was not my problem as I felt it. What I felt most was a glob of unworthiness that I could not tie down to any concrete sins I was guilty of. What I needed more than pardon was a sense that God accepted me.”*
Many followers of Jesus wrestle with this. They believe God forgives them, but they wrestle with how God could love someone like them. They believe their guilt has been taken away, but a general feeling of shame might not go away. Maybe you feel “a glob of unworthiness.”
When that happens, you and I need God to provide a glob remover—grace.
The apostle Paul was an excellent example of what grace can do to guilt and shame. He wrote: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15,16).
Grace is given, not when it is deserved but when it is needed. When the glob of unworthiness begins to settle in, remember that God’s grace was designed for people like you.
*(San Francisco: HarperOne, 1993), p 80.
