Scripture:
John 1:12 (ESV) “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Shame RX:
Our identity is found when we lay ours down.
Our sweet Savior came to give us His identity when we were lost in a mire of sin. Not when we were perfect. But when we were in desperate need of redemption. We did not have to perform to be good enough. He loved us, anyway. Our identity is found when we lay ours down.
***These excerpts first appeared in Shame Off You***
In Christ, our worth could never be based on performance because Christ alone defines our worth. With His blood, He covered every single transgression and communicated to our souls that His love was so great for us that He would die on our behalf. Christ is our worth. We who are in Christ no longer live, so how could shame impact us so greatly? Paul, too, revealed this to the Galatian church that this identity of ours is in Christ alone: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NLT).
What a liberating truth this is! The pressure’s off when we realize that the grace of God reveals our shortcomings not to condemn us but to take us to another level of freedom.
So where are you on the spectrum? Shame might be as simple as living in a culture of shame where we are manipulated or coerced into performing for others. Or maybe it is social shame. We are embarrassed that we don’t measure up to the standards society sets. Shame could also emanate from a painful traumatic event in your life that has left you lost or diminished your self-worth. The avoidance of pain or other specific things that may trigger or amplify our sense of shame becomes our survival tactic. We may avoid a place or a person because it simply hurts too much. Later, our shame might evolve into fear and anxiety as we try to disregard or resolve the shame within us by covering it, but don’t readily see its effect is steadily worsening. We might try to deny it altogether, spin it or rationalize it, or maybe displace it into being someone else’s shame. Or shame could start to overtake us. We become absorbed in our painful reality, desperate to eradicate shame but plunge headlong into an even deeper state of shame. Anger and an offended spirit can then cause us to act in unhealthy ways to try and kill the shame we are bearing, but it is slowly killing us instead. At any place on the shame spectrum, we can get off the cycle of shame keeping us there. Shame loses its power when we find our identity in Christ instead of in our shame.
When we are accepted by God, we are free to accept others even when they do not accept us. When we look to our Savior rather than to our shame, we let go of the temporary and embrace the eternal. Our identity is in Christ now, not in our shame. Our shame does not define us when our Savior redeems us.
Why live with shame when you don’t have to? God has provided a way for us to remove shame and live in victory. Come and release your shame in Jesus’ name. Shame Off You details a biblical method for removing shame and is available at many retailers. Here are a few places you can get Shame Off You. Let me know you bought Shame Off You and receive a free bonus digital download.