REFLECT
*Using a dry erase marker, write words such as “sinful”, “failure”, “unlovable”, “ashamed”, etc… one label on each of the four of the mirrors. Then on the fifth mirror, write the word “forgiven.
It wasn't so long ago that you were dead in that old life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with us all. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our dead-in-sin lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus Christ, our Messiah. (Ephesians 2:1-3, MSG)
Meditate on the passage above, read it again and again, and as you do consider the ways in which you have sinned in the past… the mistakes you have made, the wrongs you have committed. Then, starting with mirror #1, take some time to gaze into each of the five mirrors. As you look at your reflection in the mirror, what label has been placed upon you? Think for a moment about how you have earned that label. Taking a long, hard look at yourself can be difficult, especially when that look exposes the sins we try so hard to hide. After you have reflected on your reflection, move on to the next mirror and repeat this process until you have had a chance to see yourself in all five mirrors. Then, offer up a prayer to God, asking him to remove the negative labels and reflections, and replace them with a stamp of love and forgiveness, thank him for giving you a new life, not defined by the mistakes you have made, but by the holiness you have received through Christ’s death and resurrection. From there you may meditate further on the reflections or continue on to the next station.
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