Shame is inevitable. That is the nature of sin. It can feel impossible to survive, but there is a solution! All we need to do is confess our sins and hand them over to God.
A few weeks ago Hurricane Florence came crawling across the Carolinas. The coastal areas of North Carolina were battered by wind, and worse, torrential rain. It started out as a drizzle. Then slowly built up to a downpour that lasted for not just hours, but days.
Sometimes shame is big and sweeping. Easy to see, overwhelming to feel, no problem to identify. And sometimes it is the tiny dark shadows that hide in the cracks and crevices of life. The little stuff that feels too small to mention or pay attention to until it builds up into an insurmountable mountain.
Like a hurricane, the course of shame is unpredictable. It can hit fast and hard, but sometimes it is like a little dark cloud that just hangs over you.
Forecasting the Storm
What is shame? According to the dictionary, it is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. It is a feeling that most of us are familiar with and wish to avoid.
I have felt shame for most of my life. Instances where I deserved to feel shame: telling a lie, breaking a promise, being selfish, or hurting someone’s feelings. Other times, however, the hurricane of shame has been because of foolish (or perceived foolish) behavior. Like when I was younger and would use the wrong word trying to sound like I was smart. Or when I made crazy voices while reading a story to my class and they didn’t think it was funny.
Shame’s cloak is the little things that can be brought up again and again. They creep in and out of your confidence and eat at it. The nagging voice telling you, you’re not good enough. Until you find you are self-conscious of situations you never were before.
Banishing Shame
But just like an umbrella can help keep back the rain, God can be our shield against shame.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:5, NIV
When we put our hope, and faith in God, He takes the shame of our sin. So just like the flood waters recede, our disgrace will fall away. And, fertile ground is left behind where God’s love can grow.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2, NIV
I am so glad we serve a risen Savior who takes the shame that lives within me and bursts through it with eternal life.
God’s Life Saver
The wonder and beauty of our Living God is worth throwing off the cloak of shame to find the glory of everlasting love. Of course, that is so easy to say, but the doing is a whole different thing.
Shame often lays on me like depression. It floods my heart with a heaviness that makes the trudging of the day, feel like I’m drowning. Thankfully I can scream out to God to save me. I can confess my sins and all my insecurities and then loosen my grip on them. He saves me from drowning in their chains and lifts me above the troubled waters. It doesn’t usually happen instantaneously, but little by little. As I cast off the shame that weighs me down, God lifts me until the clouds are gone and light surrounds me.
Shame lays on us like depression. It floods our hearts with a heaviness, but we can scream out to God to save us. He saves us from drowning in their chains and lifts us above the troubled waters. Click To Tweet
Dear God,
Please take this sin that is weighing me down. Push off the shame that is holding me in the waters that drown. I am not worthy of this mercy but so thankful that you promise it to me. Thank You for the love and grace You bestowed on me when You laid down Your earthly life in exchange for my eternal one. No greater love has ever been given. Help me reflect that gift that I don’t deserve but hope to share with those around me.
love,
me
