“Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”Psalm 34:5

This is a delicate subject: shame. I will prayerfully handle it with honesty and great care:

There are two kinds of shame in this world: true shame and false shame. We feel true shame if we sin ourselves. We feel false shame is someone else sins against us. All shame keeps us from having a healthy loving relationship with our Father. Case and point: Adam and Eve.

We all sin; and, therefore, we all feel shame. My shame was prohibiting me from having a whole and healthy relationship with God and keeping me on the run from Him much like Adam and Eve in the Garden. I had certain areas of my life that God filled up but not in entirety. There was shame living in those compartments and while on the lam, I was missing out on the beauty and wholeness of Jesus.

I have had plenty of experience in both true and false shame in my life. False shame, or shame caused from someone sinning against you, is the dirtiest kind of shame one can feel, but the true shame that is born out of it is far worse. It takes up residence in your heart and prevents you from living a healthy life with the Lord.  For me, I had to realize that someone’s sin against myself did not justify my sinning against myself. Justice belongs to the Lord. I had to face the fact that I was standing in my own way of obtaining an authentic healthy life with Jesus. 

Just like Adam and Eve ineffectively hiding from the Lord in the garden of Eden, I had to try and cover my shame. I did so with food. Then, I did so with smart clothes. Then, I couldn’t do that any longer. I had no place left to hide. Ultimately, my sins had separated me from God (Isiah 59:2).  I did the only thing left I could do: turn to Jesus.

I turned to Jesus to feel the shame, both true and false, for me. I lifted my chin to the one true Lord and Savior. I turned my back on a life of shame: the large portion of false shame that was waged against me and the even larger portion of true shame that I waged against myself. It isn’t complicated. It is a choice.  I choose to give it over to Him.

Something miraculous happened.

My load of shame piled upon my back was gone.

I became a slave to God.

Take a moment and look at the shame (true and false) in your own heart. Does it hinder you from a relationship with the Lord?

Praying,

P31Wife

(My sweet husband and I.)

“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53: 4-6).

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 6: 22-23).