Shame is a deadly internal condition. It is able to color the view of our world and self-image. In fact, shame can prevent us from experiencing and expressing the Life of Christ. Imagine a paradigm that can skew the image of Christ’s living expression through us by sheer unbelief and a false faith in the message of shame. It is just this devastating.
Deadly Condition
I personally know this through experience. For years of my Christian life I carried shame like a cloak and it hid my light under a bushel. Not only did it obscured my view of myself in Christ but it also colored others view of me. Carrying shame literally tempts others to define you by your shamed vision. We create shame and call for its response from others. This is hideous.
So how to we get shed if shames powerful influence? It is a deep work of the Spirit. He has to renew our minds and lead us from this great darkness. And oh how willing Jesus is to do precisely this. For me it encompassed acceptance of God’s sovereign hand and His personal choices for me, casting aside my wayward thoughts and receiving His views, and embracing life with joy rather than dwelling in discontent. The work is not easy because some of the shame I carried was because I lived foolishly. Other shame was based on the landscape that the Father set in place which I rejected. Others were just seeing things based on judgment and opinion. This included even body shame received from my childhood. All of it had to go.
Shame No MORE
And the below scripture proves it has nothing to do with my unworthiness. Why? Because I have a great Savior whose Life is greater than my weakness and shame. The Life of Christ trumps shame.
“I have been made a messenger of this wonderful news by the gift of grace that works through me. Even though I am the least significant of all His holy believers, this grace-gift was imparted when the manifestation of His power came upon me. Grace alone empowers me so that I can boldly preach this wonderful message to non-Jewish people, sharing with them the unfading, inexhaustible riches of Christ, which are beyond comprehension.”
Ephesians 3:7-8 TPT
They that wait on Me shall not be ashamed!
Ps 25:3a NLT
“Could anyone be disgraced when he has entwined his heart with Yours?”
Psalms 25:3a TPT
…On thy I wait all the day.
Psalms 25:5b
After we finish preparing and set for printing my new book, His Will Alone:How to seek and know the Will of God and all its many benefits, I will be focusing on the next booklet in the Overcoming Series. Overcoming Anxiety, Overcoming Fear, Overcoming Self-Hatred have been amazingly popular. The next will be Overcoming Shame. If you could pray with us for the Lord to complete what He started, we would be exceedingly grateful.
One of the Scriptures God gave me to strengthen my heart when going through a long period of shame was Genesis 16:13. Hagar was in a bad situation and had run away into the wilderness. The angel of the Lord was there to speak to her. Hagar named the Lord EL ROI–the God who sees me. How incredible is that? He doesn’t “saw” you in the past, He always sees you now. He sees YOU; not your neighbor, not everyone else, YOU. And 2 Chronicles 16:9 says that His eyes are looking throughout the earth to show Himself strong on… Read more »