“You can’t punish yourself into goodness.”

You can’t hate yourself into goodness. You can’t shame yourself into goodness. You can’t neglect yourself into goodness.

Goodness is God-ness. And you can’t manufacture it—you receive it. It’s a gift from God through Jesus.

Somewhere along the way, you got confused.

As a child, you learned to deal with failure by turning on yourself. You thought punishment would make you better. You believed that being hard on yourself, was the pathway to “goodness”.

So you punished yourself. You called yourself names. You tore yourself down.

But here is the truth: Self-punishment is not a pathway to goodness. Your debt has been paid. You have been made new. You have been redeemed.

Abba is not looking to punish you today. Only you are. Jesus paid what you could not. You can receive forgiveness today. You can change your thinking today. You can move toward peace… rest… and joy.

Or— you can stay in the old pattern, clinging to childhood thinking, and keep trying to punish yourself into goodness.

Close

Today is a good day to end the battle within yourself. Stop being your own worst critic.

Prayer

Father, I don’t want to hate myself anymore. I receive Your forgiveness. Teach me to be kind to myself. Thank You, Jesus, for paying my debt. Amen.

Scripture 

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Rom. 8:1 ESV