New Year, New Filter

Coffee, photos, email—all are things that can be enhanced with the right filter.

Did you know your life can be enhanced by a filter, too? You can live a greater, purpose-filled life by replacing your default filter, a filter we all share. This filter is shaped by our brokenness due to fear, pain and shame.

Many people—even great leaders—struggle with the fear of failure and rejection. Painful memories and past failures also work against us emotionally. Then shame enters the picture. Shame uses these feelings against us—it tells us that instead of sometimes failing we are always a failure.

God has called us to be much more and to do more for His glory, so we must break this filter! But, how?

A New Filter

Believe it or not, we’ve had the answer for thousands of years. Christ gave us a new filter to live free: faith, hope, and love.

• Faith is believing that what God says is true, and that includes who He says we are. This replaces our shame as we remind ourselves that we are more than conquerors!
• Hope helps us persevere and grow through our pain. We know and trust that God will bring good despite our trials.
• Love is knowing we are fully welcomed and accepted by God. It’s His perfect love that casts out all fear!

In Hebrews 12, we are encouraged to fix our eyes on Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him (hope) he endured the cross (the greatest love), scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is the filter we should view our lives through. It allows us to shake off the shackles of oppression and live truly free!

And, the larger truth in all of this is: We aren’t just free from something, we are free for something. We are free to set more people free.

If we want our ministries to grow and attract more people to Christ, we must make sure we are living truly free. As the Church, let’s commit to living free through Christ this year.  Our mission is too great to continue to live with our default filter.

Next Steps

1. Take an inventory this week of your thoughts and actions.  What in your life or in your leadership has been restricted by fear, pain, or shame? What are the actions of faith, hope, and love you can take against them?
2. Dive into God’s Word and explore this topic more with Live Free, a 5-day reading plan from the YouVersion Bible App.