The Devil is a tyrant. The ultimate tyrant and to listen to his suggestions, to follow him is to soon find yourself in bondage. The evil one has many tools at his disposal to ensnare us and keep us in bondage. One of his most powerful tool to keep us in bondage is "shame." Now according to the dictionary definition, shame "is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior." Shame comes when you realized, " man how could I fall for this, how could I have done such a foolish thing."
Many of us have done things in our lives we are deeply ashamed of. We have committed sinful acts that we are even terrified to think of . We have things that we hope no one will ever find out and try to bury in our minds. Many of us are depressed and walking around feeling heavy because of shame. Some of us are fearful of others ever found out about our past, about the things we have done. We show confidence in public but deep inside we are ashamed of who we are and feel enslaved to our past and our sins.
Shame is a good thing when used by the Spirit of God to lead us to repentance, but is a chain of bondage in the hand of Satan to lead us to hide from God and from each other. After Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit 🍎, they were ashamed and hid themselves from the Lord and from each other. Many of us are allowing the shame of our past sins to cause us to hide from the Lord. We put on fig leaves of success, fig leaves of religiosity, fig leaves of pride, fig leaves of superiority to cover our nakedness, our shame. But covering your shame will do you no good, you will remain with a guilty conscience, hiding in fear less you be discovered.
Another destructive way in which Satan uses shame to enslave us is to make us glory in it. The homosexual movement is a perfect example. People who are practicing shameful acts are now promoting their shame as Sodom, they promote their shame as a virtue, they even have a whole month to celebrate their shame. June is called gay pride month 🤦🏾♂️. If Satan can't get you to hide your shame, sorrowing in your shame, he will get you to promote it, to embrace it as a virtue and hence keep you in his chain of sin and bondage .
But I am here to tell you of the right way to deal with shame and it is by confessing it to the Lord. You deal with shame by coming boldly to the throne of grace and laying your soul bare before the Lord. "Lord I have sinned again, I have done what I know I shouldn't have done, I have done the very thing I condemn others for, I have done something I never thought I would have done, I am ashamed of myself, I am not worthy to be in your presence, but I know you love me, I know you will not reject anyone who comes to you, have mercy on me Lord and cleans me of all impurities 😥." It is in confessing our past, our sins to the Lord we find freedom from shame.
Once you finish confessing your shame to the Lord, believe the fact that God has put away your sin, God has washed away your sins and go about your day as new man, woman in Christ Jesus. When someone from your past comes and bring back your shame, you can tell them yes, I did this shameful thing, but I have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and this thing no longer has any hold on me. Based on what it is, your shameful past can now be a testimony to others on how merciful and loving God has been to you, for He has broken my shame . The moment you fall into sin is the moment you come to Jesus and confess that sin, asking for the power to overcome the sin.
Let us confess all of our shameful actions to Jesus and will set us free. Let us never be ashamed to come to Jesus no matter how shameful the thing you committed has been, no matter how many times you have done the same thing over. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace and we find mercy in abundance. I am ashamed no more, for Jesus has set me free 🙏🏾
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