Surface Shame and Live Free
What is your experience of shame? Usually we don’t recognize the ways shame affects us. It lurks well under the surface of our lives stealthily affecting our decision making and actions.
Shame can be defined many ways, but let's think of it as humiliation or distress that attaches to a person’s identity as result of wrong or foolish thought or behavior. These thoughts and behaviors can be our own or those of another toward us.
Adam and Eve were described in the Garden as naked, yet without shame before God or each other. (Genesis 2:25) However, after their sinful rebellion (the Fall) all people throughout history have struggled with shame-infected identities.
Shame is closely tied to feelings and fears, primarily the fear of being found out as flawed, weak, a failure or morally wrong. It leads people – as it did Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 - to hide from each other and/or from God. We hide so we won’t be found out. The more shame we feel, the more of ourselves we hide from ourselves, others and God – and the more warped and relationally dysfunctional we become.
Fear motivated by shame can keep people from being honest about their work and abilities. It can hold us back from new relationships or from people who are different from us. It can bar us from trying new things.
When you take time to reflect, do you find any of these strong, directing inhibitions in your life? If so, you might want to explore their origins. Jesus can break the power of shame and heal the identity of anyone who comes to Him for help.
The only way to address and overcome shame is to come clean to Father through the work of Jesus and the counsel of the Holy Spirit. We all are marred with guilt and shame related to what we have thought and done and what others have done to us. Sinful shame is in our identities – and so, we are all prone to hide. Jesus, however, paid the complete price for all our sin and dysfunction. He made a perfect sacrificial payment for all our “stuff.” It cost Him everything – and ultimately His life. His death
paid for a complete identity overhaul for us. We have been cleansed and set free from the power of sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) This is eternally, spiritually and legally true.
This new, free and clean identity must be applied to our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit. He helps, counsels and convinces us through God’s Word. We, however, need to be active participants in this transformational process. The best way is to consistently and repeatedly present our whole selves to God – to still ourselves before Him. As we honestly express our love to God, with our emotions, intellect and energies (Mark 12:30), and as we invite Him to expose our sin and faults, and to walk us through cleansing and Kingdom redirection ,we are changed.
He will often use others to surface our sin and failings. It can be painful at times, but it is always worth it. We must choose not to hide from others, but to allow them to surface our need of healing and change, and to be used by God to assist in our transformation.
If we want to be free from shame, we must invite God and others into the intimate and scary parts of our lives. Take courage, you can do it – in the name of Jesus!
~ Coach Tom
_________________
P.S. ... If you are stalled in life, or particularly if you are in transition, here are three ways I can help you Get Clear, Get Focused and Be Fruitful!
1. Grab a Free Copy of my "4 Key Steps to Clarity and Fruitfulness" Document. It's a Blueprint to help you move ahead. Click Here
2. Join my FaceBook Group, "Greater Focus and Fruitfulness" for more teaching, training and community. Click Here
3. Work with me:
I can help you Clarify, Plan, and take Bold Steps into Your Future. Book a Free 45-Minute Strategy Session with me: Click Here
