Confronting Shame - Martin Wiles

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Genesis 3:7 NLT

What I wanted to do to cover my shame, I couldn’t.

My teen years were rough—but not because they had to be. I had a wonderful Christian family who loved me and attempted to steer me in the right direction. But I had rebellion on my mind. I didn’t want their lifestyle. The hippie culture pulled me in directions my parents hated and I shouldn’t have gone.

Having a good spiritual foundation, my going in this opposite direction brought shame—shame I didn’t know how to deal with. If I would have had a choice, I would have stopped going to church, but I was a preacher’s kid and forced to go.

My rebellion continued after I graduated from high school and left home. I tried some other things to handle my shame. I didn’t go to church as often, I slacked up on reading my Bible, and I hung around with those who shared my new lifestyle. Eventually, I did the only thing I could do to deal with my shame.

Adam and Eve did the only thing they knew to do as well after eating from the tree God had told them to leave alone: tried to cover their nakedness … their shame … by sewing fig leaves together. It didn’t work.

When I sin against God, shame follows. When I don’t live the life He desires, He’ll bring on the guilt. Not because He wants me to feel miserable, but because He wants to form me into His likeness and image, which brings present and eternal joy.

I can try to ignore my shame over my disobedience, but it won’t go away. The only cure now is the cure I finally tried as a young adult: confession. When I finally did that, God restored me, and the shame and guilt left.

Occasionally, the shame over my past sins returns, but I quickly deal with it. God doesn’t bring up sins He’s forgiven. That’s the enemy’s job. So I tell him to leave me alone. The blood of God’s Son has covered my sins and freed me from a guilty conscience.

If your lifestyle is causing you shame, confess it to God and let Him help you live as He desires. If shame over past sins you’ve confessed haunts you, tell the enemy to go back where he came from. Christ’s blood has cleansed you.

Prayer: Father, thank You for covering our shame and guilt with the blood of Your Son.

Tweetable: Is shame holding you back? 

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The Shadow of Shame - Martin Wiles

Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. Psalm 34:5 NLT

The shadow of shame followed him like a dog on a leash reluctant to walk.

Vinny grew up in a home where religious rules were forced down his throat like a nasty medicine. For his first fourteen years, he could do nothing about his situation—other than stew on the inside. At fifteen, a driver’s license and a new car gave him the freedom he wanted. Add a few rowdy friends, and his course of rebellion was set.

Vinny’s road of rebellion began with smoking and drinking. School was merely a place to hang out when he’d missed too many days to stay out again. The habits soon led to acts of vandalism. Acts that could have landed him in jail—or at least caused him to do community service and pay a large fine—had he been caught.

By the time Vinny was sixteen, he had more than a few notches of rebellion in his belt. But he wasn’t really proud of them. His parents and others had taught him better. The day came when he confessed all his mess and turned his life around, but the shadow of shame remained.

Vinny wondered whether God could still use him. No one except his friends knew all he had done. On Sundays, he appeared to be a normal teenager. The perfect preacher’s kid. It wasn’t until some years later that he came to understand the full and complete forgiveness of Christ and moved beyond his past.

I can identify with Vinny. I, too, have things in my past I’m not proud of. At one time, they held me back. I wondered if God could use someone with a sordid past. But like the psalmist, I looked to God, and He removed the shadow of shame.

I remembered the verse that said those in Christ were new creatures whose old things had passed away. And the one that reminded me I was no longer under condemnation. And the one that said confession brings forgiveness and a renewed relationship with Christ. I looked at the many seedy characters in the Bible who God chose to use despite their shameful pasts. I began looking to God and stopped listening to Satan who said the shadow of shame made me useless. Shame became just a shadow with no substance.

Don’t let the shadow of shame keep you from serving Christ in the present.

Tweetable: Are you living in the shadow of shame?

Prayer: Father, we thank You for putting our pasts in the past and for using us in the present. 

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