I’ve been marinating over this topic for a few weeks now, and honestly I feel this is something the Lord has laid on my heart to address, so I’m going for it. This may offend some of you, but I’ll be honest with you upfront. I make no apologies for the Word of God. I make no apologies for what the Holy Spirit asks of me.

Several years ago, I rededicated my life to the Lord and ever since then the anthem of freedom has been flowing out of my spirit. If you are familiar at all with my blog and website, you will see that my two favorite scriptures involve just that—freedom. One is 2 Corinthians 3:17: “…wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The other is John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”

I recently was scrolling through social media and saw where someone posted this: “Come as you are! Broken and messy, God loves you no matter what.” I’d like to explain that this is a dear friend of mine, and a daughter of the King. But it really got me thinking. Of course, Jesus is no respecter of persons and He died a brutal death and made the ultimate sacrifice for us all—the broken, the sinner, the damaged, the good—He died for every single one of us so that we all could have freedom. Ironically, another friend of mine reposted something similar a few days later with the saying “It’s okay to not be okay.” It indeed was a beautiful message at its core, but it brought me back to the same thought.

Here’s the thing: why are we staying in the mentality of “Jesus takes me as I am, broken and messy?” and “It’s okay to not be okay?” The fact of the matter is, yes, He absolutely takes us as we are, broken and messy. But for heaven’s sake, we weren’t meant to stay like that! It’s okay to not be okay, but it’s not okay to stay that way! If you are defining okay as broken, misunderstood, hurt, abused, defeated, living with a horrible past, or a victim of someone else’s poor choices, it’s absolutely—under no circumstance—not okay to not be okay!

God loves sinners! We see that Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Think about that. While we were in the middle of the worst thing we have ever, ever done, He still loved us and He still died for us in that moment! So, yes, He loves us in our mess, but He hates our sin because of what it does to us. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And Proverbs 13:15 in the Amplified version says, “…but the way of the unfaithful is hard [like barren, dry soil].” Our mess is hard. It tears us down. It prevents us from the fullness of all that He came and gave His life for—that abundant life we read about in John 10:10.

Luke 9:23 tells us, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” What does it mean to deny ourselves? I believe it not only means denying our fleshly wants and desires, but also our circumstances, depression, anxieties, worries, imperfections, addictions, or any other pit we might find ourselves in. If we are to truly follow Him, we have to deny all those things.

The definition of deny is, “being in a state of refusal, refusing to admit the existence of.” If I have to keep hammering this in I will. If we are to deny ourselves, then by definition we have to refuse to exist in worry, refuse to exist in depression, refuse to exist in negative thoughts, refuse to exist in not being good enough, refuse to exist in financial depletion, refuse to exist in addiction, and refuse to exist in our past. We refuse to grant those things the right to consume us. Choose to be consumed by the Almighty. Choose to be consumed by who He says we are! That’s worth repeating. Go back and read that paragraph one more time!

If you are a believer in the Most High God, then you and I have resurrection power living on the inside of us. Romans 6:10–11 says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” We’ve got the power of the Almighty dwelling within us, the power to overcome anything. And He says in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Praise God! We’re not called to a life of pain, worry, anxiety, depression, addiction, or continued repeated bad behaviors. We’re not called to dwell on an imperfect past with imperfect decisions made by us or someone else.

We are called to be children of the Most High King. Galatians 3:26 tells us, “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I believe this is really easy. Don’t misunderstand me and think She has no clue what I’m going through. The moment I rededicated my life to Christ was a very alone and empty moment. In fact, I found myself lying on my kitchen floor in sheer desperation. As a matter of fact, it was my right cheek that was plastered to the cold, linoleum floor of my kitchen at the time, tears flowing from my face so profusely that it literally made my skin stick to the floor. It was in this moment that I fully surrendered. I cast my past, my poor decisions, my situation, my circumstance, my finances, my lowest of my lows onto Him—the One who gave it all for me and I chose to never look back. I chose to accept and walk in the freedom that He paid such a high price for me to walk in. And guess what? I am truly free! I am no longer that girl in those circumstances! I am a precious daughter of the Most High, walking in freedom every single day of my life. This is my best life. This is that life of abundance He promised me.

We cannot stay in the “Jesus-takes-me-just-as-I-am” mindset. We can’t stay in the “it’s-okay-to-not-be-okay” mindset.

Friend, I challenge you. If you have found yourself spiraling within the same circumstance for a few weeks, months, or years now, and maybe you’ve adopted the “it’s-okay-to-not-be-okay” mentality, I urge you to fall on your face and really surrender. Commit to lying there for as long as it takes to pour your heart out to the One who died to completely set you free from it all.

Pray this with me:

Father, I thank You for the cross! I thank You for sacrificing Your life so I could walk in a life of freedom. I thank You that I am no longer tied to my past, but I am pressing into my future and it is looking bright! I choose to cast all my worries, cares, and circumstances onto You. Lord, I acknowledge that it’s not okay to not be okay, because You paid the ultimate price for me to walk in nothing less than righteousness, forgiveness, and royalty. I choose You this day, Lord, to be ruler over it all. I’m pressing in to all You have for me! I no longer dwell in my circumstance of depression, anxiety, addiction, worry, past hurts, or sadness, for you have paid a high price for my freedom. I choose You over everything today! In Jesus name I pray. Amen.