Better at Dealing with Shame

For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
1 Peter 2:6 (NIV)

Salvation erases human shame and gives a believer a sense of self-pride, gratitude, thanksgiving, and a deep appreciation for the uniqueness of one’s life. Jesus steps into this kind of honor-and-shame cultural context and says, if you ask Me who I’m going to have dinner with, I’m not going to the palace to have dinner with the king. I’m going to eat with lepers and sinners and go to a party with tax collectors.

Why? Because it represents a powerful truth: there is no shame necessary when one has anchored one's faith in Jesus Christ.

Do you know how many people have denied themselves the opportunity to take advantage of a chance and an open door because they woke up this morning feeling like a human reproach? Peter says to cut that shame out and understand that when you belong to Jesus, you can live better than shame. If you have assurance in Christ, you can actually rebuke shame.

Shame is going to always be walking beside you, whispering things like:

• But you know you’re divorced.
• But you know you had kids before you got married.
• But you know they didn’t hire you.
• But you know you’ve gained all that weight.
• But you know everybody knows your mistakes.
• But you know you’ve spent that time in prison.
• But you know you had to go through rehab three times.
• But you know you failed the bar four times.

You can’t stop shame from walking beside you and saying such things, but in Christ He gives you the capacity to push back. You can fight back against shame when it keeps playing that same recording of what feeds your shame. Push back on it and say: “You’re right; those things are true, but I’ve got a cornerstone, and because of that, the fragility of the rest of the structure of my life is not built on how strong my peripherals are. It is built on how stable my cornerstone is. I can be wounded and still anointed because the cornerstone is keeping me together. I don’t have to live led by shame. In fact, I have Christ’s permission to dismiss it, to fight it, and to rebuke it.”

Your shame is never bigger than Jesus’ forgiveness. Your shame can never diminish His grace.