Shame

[newnature]

Far too many believers are feeling dirty, worthless and ashamed of themselves; shame is a silent, but deadly disease that pollutes the lifeblood of many believers faith. As a result, we feel unclean and therefore unworthy to approach God and have the living and intimate relationship that he wants to have with us. Shame prevents us from intimacy with God because it makes us feel unworthy and distant from him. God’s standard is nothing less than perfection and none of us measure up, if we did or we ever could measure up sufficiently righteous for heaven through our performance, we would not have needed a savior at all. For it is God’s grace, not our striving, that makes us accepted and acceptable. It is God’s performance through Jesus Christ, not our trying hard to perform, that eradicates our shame. Some of us spend most of our life giving up. We are tired, burned out, disillusioned, depressed, addicted to something. People around us feel frustrated by the huge disparity between our capabilities and our performance. They either pep talk us concerning our value, or shame us for not performing. No one can have a close relationship with us; we push people away physically and emotionally, and push God away. We are the ones in families, churches, and society that people take care of-for a while, until we are given up on because of our lack of response. For all the performance-based people around us, we are simply bad for public relations. Once in a while we find ourselves in an environment that shames us for being so defective, then we start trying harder, but it does not last for long, we are simply out of gas to start with, we merely survive.

God’s Reconciliation of Man, read more about it at http://godsreconciliation.blogspot.com/

[B. W.]

Far too many believers are feeling dirty, worthless and ashamed of themselves; shame is a silent, but deadly disease that pollutes the lifeblood of many believers faith. As a result, we feel unclean and therefore unworthy to approach God and have the living and intimate relationship that he wants to have with us. Shame prevents us from intimacy with God because it makes us feel unworthy and distant from him. God’s standard is nothing less than perfection and none of us measure up, if we did or we ever could measure up sufficiently righteous for heaven through our performance, we would not have needed a savior at all. For it is God’s grace, not our striving, that makes us accepted and acceptable. It is God’s performance through Jesus Christ, not our trying hard to perform, that eradicates our shame. Some of us spend most of our life giving up. We are tired, burned out, disillusioned, depressed, addicted to something. People around us feel frustrated by the huge disparity between our capabilities and our performance. They either pep talk us concerning our value, or shame us for not performing. No one can have a close relationship with us; we push people away physically and emotionally, and push God away. We are the ones in families, churches, and society that people take care of-for a while, until we are given up on because of our lack of response. For all the performance-based people around us, we are simply bad for public relations. Once in a while we find ourselves in an environment that shames us for being so defective, then we start trying harder, but it does not last for long, we are simply out of gas to start with, we merely survive.

God’s Reconciliation of Man, read more about it at http://godsreconciliation.blogspot.com/

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[ManofGod]

Your message on shame has really touched my heart and hit home with me in a very sobering way. It brought me back to when I had given up on my life as a christian because of my constant failure in the area of pornography. I became so frustrated and so ashamed that I decided to not even go to Jesus to confess my sins anymore. I let shame overtake me and mar my spiritual life for 3 years. Whenever I thought about trying to return to God and try to overcome my addiction, I would always come to the conclusion that I would just fail again, so it would all just be futile to seek God anymore. My road to recovery began when I finally admitted my addiction to my dad, and when I did, God helped me realize that Jesus came and defeated sin, so He could defeat my sin too. My improvement in this was slow and frustrating at first, but as time has gone on, I have reached the point where I am no longer looking at pornography daily or having constant lustful thoughts. Just as newnature said, we can still not be perfect, and I still occasionally struggle with looking at innappropriate things. But by the incredible power of the Holy Spirit, I am no longer addicted to pornography.
To anyone who is reading this that is struggling with shame and doubt, take it from me and newnature, if you surrender your self before Jesus and pray that He will help you with whatever you are struggling with, then your shame will be eradicated and replaced with hope. In times of failure always remember this passage: Romans 8:1-2.
Thanks for taking your time to post this newnature. Keep up the good work brother. God bless.