Thursday, March 8, 2018

Off with the Robe of Shame


You are ashamed, and perhaps you have turned your back on God for you assumed He has turned His back on you.  In rebellion you may have now committed additional shameful sins, only making your problem worse.  You have accepted your shame as your unchangeable identity and you live as an outcast, shut down emotionally, isolating yourself so you never have to be hurt again.  You numb your pain with drugs, sex, power, success, abuse of others, whatever enables you to stop feeling the shame.  But it keeps coming back like a recurring nightmare.
Jesus went to the cross and, bearing your sin and shame, He cried out “It is finished!”  The infinite expanse of God’s mercy and grace is bigger than you are, bigger than anything and anyone that might come against Him.  He can take all of your guilt and justify you.  He can take all of your shame and grant you the riches of His glory (Eph 1:18).  And now, like Jesus, run the race, despise the shame for the joy set before you.  Count it as nothing.  Put on His glory.