Scripture of the Week:

Psalm 83:16, 18

“Cover their faces with shame, so they might seek you, O LORD. 18 Then they will know that you alone are the LORD, the sovereign king over all the earth.”

Shame RX of the Week:

Shame can be the very thing that reveals our need of redemption.

I don’t know about you, but this kind of sounds like a mean prayer. Cover someone in shame? Who prays that, right? Well, actually Asaph did. You know, a worship leader. But before we are too harsh to judge him (uh, that would be shame, too), look at his motive. Could shame have any redeeming qualities? What was Asaph showing us in this prayer?

We have talked about the adverse effects that shame has on us and our inability to remove it apart from God’s word through a biblical approach as I have shared in the book Shame Off You. But is there any redeeming value to shame? What if the shame fits, meaning a person has done a shameful thing (sin) and feels shame? What then? Shame can be the very thing that reveals our need of redemption.

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These verses above reveal another side of shame. The very shame we want to get rid of can become the thing that draws us near to God. Now I can hear some of you say, God does not use shame. But it is in our brokenness that we are sometimes finally willing to look up. Shame is a consequence of our sin, and while God convicts us by His Holy Spirit to draw us nearer to Himself, shame that we feel can also be a catalyst to turn our hearts away from shame and toward Christ. Shame’s residue can break us, but God can take our brokenness and heal our hearts again.

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It does not matter how shame entered in – as a consequence of our sin – guilt we feel, or perhaps someone else trying to place shame upon us. Despite the insidiousness of shame, our great God can even take shame and cause it to turn our hearts toward Him. He is just that good to take what was meant for evil – shame’s condemnation of our souls – and turn it into a sweet conviction that causes us to have a godly sorrow that leads us to repentance. God can take our shame and transform it into an incredible story of redemption.

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Though we live in a fallen world filled with shame, for the Christian there is therefore now no condemnation. We can choose to walk in the Spirit and kick shame to the curb. For the unbeliever, the shame that has come into their lives can be removed if they will turn to Christ. God does not cause shame, but He delivers us from every single shame we encounter. Amen!

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Let the words spoken over a millennia ago refresh your souls today. The same emotion of shame robbed people of the joy of the LORD, then, too. Until God removed it from their souls and their minds by His lavish grace. Soak it in, friends. We are free, indeed. Walk in it.

Romans 8:1-4 (NET)

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Have you ordered your copy of Shame Off You yet? God is changing hearts and minds – lives – through His word. Pre-order now and receive some freebies to help you walk the shame-free life out. Drop me aline and let me know how the LORD is using the message of Shame Off You in your life.