Begin with 2 minutes of stillness and silence before God.

You're wearing a pair of glasses, but these aren't ordinary lenses. They're coated with a heavy, dark tint that dramatically alters your view. Every scene, every face, every moment is seen through this deep, distorting shade. This is akin to navigating life burdened by guilt and shame. These emotions act like a perpetual filter over your eyes, skewing your perspective of yourself, warping your view of others, and casting a shadow over the world around you. Just as tinted lenses can change the color and clarity of what you see, living under the weight of guilt and shame profoundly affects how you perceive and interact with how life unfolds, often without your conscious awareness.

It's worth considering that guilt and shame often involve an inward focus. This isn't to diminish the feelings or experiences anyone may have, but rather to highlight a perspective that these emotions can inadvertently lead us to concentrate more on ourselves. We can be deceived into letting what we've done and who we think we are matter more than what matters most, which is identifying with Christ and living for Him. This is why we were created to begin with.

And then, those things start shaping and warping the lens through which we see life. Because when you're capable of feeling guilt and shame for what you've done and experienced, it makes it really easy to see others through that same lens, to see them for what they've done or from what's happened to them.

Basically, if you're blind to how Heaven sees you now that Jesus has come, you'll also be blind to how Heaven sees others. Luckily, Scripture gives us a few steps to take so that we no longer view people through that lens.

Second Corinthians 5:11-17 gives us those steps. Reading down to verse 15, we read now how we're called to live. It says, "And He, meaning Jesus, died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves." Why? Because mankind was never made to live for himself. That's where everything goes wrong. That's where you live outside of why you were created and why mankind has experienced things it was never created for, including guilt and shame.

Is it any wonder that Jesus gave two requirements to follow Him? The first one, He said, "Deny yourself." Why? Because you were never made to live for yourself. And secondly, you're supposed to pick up your cross, never letting sin against you cause sin in you, which takes us right back to verse 16, which says, "From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective." Basically, we don't see people through a worldly lens of what they've done or what's happened to them. Well, if we're not supposed to see ourselves or others through that lens, how are we supposed to see them?

Verse 17 gives us the answer. It says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come."

So how are we supposed to view others? The same way Heaven does, through the blood of Christ, as a new creation for believers. For those who are not in Christ, as those who were made in His image, whom Christ still died for. All of this starts with you. It starts with you seeing yourself and identifying yourself as a new creation in Christ - the old you, with its old baggage called guilt and shame, is dead and long gone. So you can step out of living for yourself and step into living for Christ.

When you begin to perceive yourself with clarity, it transforms your view of everything else – your interactions with others, your circumstances, your relationships, and your purpose in life take on a new perspective. Guilt and shame lose their unchallenged entry into your life as you recognize and confront the fundamental truth: they are mere falsehoods with no rightful place in your life. Christ already paid the price to remove them for good. All we have to do is step into believing it so we can cash the check for ourselves.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• How have guilt and shame colored my perception of myself and my relationships with others?
  
• In what ways can I start seeing myself as a 'new creation' in Christ, free from the burdens of past mistakes?
  
• How can my understanding of being a new creation in Christ transform the way I interact with and perceive others?
• Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of new sight through Christ. Help me to shed the tinted lenses of guilt and shame in order to see myself and the world around me as You do. May I embrace the truth of being a new creation in You, and extend that grace to others. Guide me to live not for myself, but in the freedom and purpose You have granted me. Amen.