My child, those who wait for Me will not be put to shame. I have called you to build up and encourage those around you. Proclaim My Good News to them. Lift up My standard. I am in you and with you. I will live through you as you surrender yourself to Me.
Isaiah 49:23 62:10
My child, I desire your complete healing. In the innermost parts of your being, I want you to be free. Free from shame, unforgiveness, bitterness and doubt. I want you to live in the freedom I have provided. I died so that you could live. Live free. Joyfully come in to the calling that I have for you. Today is the day. Rejoice in your freedom and healing today.
By its very nature, sin—especially hidden sin—just naturally opens wide the floodgates of guilt and shame. So we try to bury it, just like everyone else does, hoping that those around us will never discover who we really are.
Satan has used the tool of shame in countless Christians’ lives to drag them into a back-slidden condition where alienation from God becomes a way of life. Just think how being more open about our weaknesses would serve to cripple this strategy the devil so routinely exploits.(James 5:16)
Rather than allowing sin to drive us from God, we need to run headlong to God when we sin. This can be very difficult for us, though, because we’ve been taught throughout life to behave ourselves. And when we don’t, our conscience tells us we must clean up our act before we can ever go to God with the problem. After all, how else might we feel like we’re worthy enough to deserve His help? Though this assumption is entirely false, it’s very real to us all the same.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
Because the problem of sin is so persistent in Christians’ lives—whether it be overt, or the more covert sin of attitudes and motivations of the heart—our most common response is to cover it up. We simply try to appear to be more respectable and holy than we actually are. Do you think pride has something to do with this? I think that’s a foregone conclusion! The really sad thing is that this cover-up unavoidably leads to an oppressive sense of shame.
Shame has a crippling effect in a person’s life. Psychologists tell us that it is often at the heart of emotional disturbance and dysfunction. So it’s not hard to see how Satan—who is called “the accuser of our brethren”(Revelation 12:10)—can use it so effectively as a wedge to bring about our alienation from God.
Our first instinct is to run and hide from God when we sin, isn’t it? The reason we do this is not only because we intuitively sense God’s displeasure, but that we think no one else has these problems. “How could I do something so despicable, so displeasing to God? What inner flaw would provoke me to even think of such a thing?”
My child, I will bring beauty out of these ashes. Gladness and praise will replace mourning and fainting. I am planting oaks of righteousness so that I will be glorified. Instead of shame you will have a double portion and instead of humiliation you will shout for joy. I am the Lord and I will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Isaiah 61:3-11
My child, shake off guilt, condemnation and shame. Shake off fear, anxiety and worry. You are My child, bought with My blood and redeemed for My purposes. You are clothed in royalty and have the crown of life. Take up every piece of armor available to you and stand. Rule and reign in the midst of your enemies. You are a warrior. you are a fighter and in Me you have the victory!
Second Peter 2:19 says, “For by what a man is overcome, by this is he enslaved.”
My child, are you overcome with fear, guilt, anxiety or shame? Or are you overcome with truth, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Those who belong to Me have crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires. If you live by the Spirit you will also walk by the Spirit. Choose to walk in Me today.
Galatians: 5:22-25