Shame: 1a: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. 2: a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute:(Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Fear: 1a: an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. (2). anxious concern: solicitude. 3: profound reverence and awe especially toward God. (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Regret: sorrow aroused by circumstances beyond one's control or power to repair an expression of distressing emotion (such as sorrow). (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Isaiah 43:18-19 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 54:4 “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
1Peter 2:6 “” 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.
Let’s visualize some scenes.
Scene 1: Can you imagine for a moment that her life was full of shame, that she thought perhaps she was a failure? Five marriages and now a live-in honey. Making a journey to the well early in the mornings to draw water, hiding her face and her heart against the comments, pointing fingers, the whispers and harsh condemning looks from those who would gather at the well to trade gossip and judgement.
Scene 2: Let’s start this scene with the most powerful and handsome man in the kingdom, strolling on his rooftop to catch a summer breeze and some sunshine. He glances to his left and he is stunned into silence. He sees this gorgeous ho and hottie washing herself and bam! Lust took over and what was right flew out the window. He had to have her even if she were married and loved her husband, after all he was powerful and could have anything he wanted and he wanted her. He took her she became pregnant with his child. Out of fear that he would be found out he used his power to kill her husband. He then had the nerve to marry her thinking that would make everything right. His fear should have been of God and not his kingdom.
Scene 3: Twelve years of feeling unclean, uncomfortable, twelve years of vaginal hemorrhaging feeling uncomforted, because she felt dirty and unworthy, she felt shame and fear. She knew a doctor who could heal her, but shame took over how could she ask him in a crowd of people who were staring and listening to her personal sickness. If she could just hide in the crowd without being seen and just touch his hem perhaps just perhaps!
Here are three scenes where people thought that they could hide their shame and fear and even their regrets in the wrong places. But the beauty of each person in the scene experienced the grace of God’s power to break the hold of shame, fear and regret that held them captive in their own lives. Shame and fear and regret has held us hostage since Adam and Eve was created. The shame of them being naked, the pain of guilt the instinct to hide from God and hide from each other. The enemy had them believing that there was no way back, that they were doomed to an eternal hell. Isn’t that how the enemy has us today, that because of our fear and shame, and the things we hold on to with regret we cannot move forward into the blessings God has in store for us, our deliverance and breakthroughs.
We give power to our shame and fears our regrets. When we mess up, we tend to want to hide from God, and hiding suddenly makes us weak, we become damaged and silent. We let shame and fear keep us from going to God, we think because of our shame we are not worthy, we hold on to the comments and finger pointing of those who look at our shame to remind us of our past. We gave the finger pointers of our shame power; we just simply give it away. Instead letting our shame, fear and regret rest at the feet of Jesus, who is not ashamed of us no mater what we have done. We let our pride hide us from going to God as if He doesn’t already know what we have done or what we are dealing with. Shame makes us hide in the wrong places; we should be hidden in Christ. (Colossians 3:3” For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.). We become like the game “Hidden Objects.”” Find Us!
We hide in our homes, offices, Computers, music, television, phones, we hide on social media, Instagram and pulpits YEAPH I said it Pulpits. We hide behind sermons that we think is for others, but it meant for the person who is giving the sermon. Until we stop hiding like the three scenes will always live-in fear shame and regret. Shame will pronounce us guilty; fear will pronounce us weak, and regret will steal our joy of breakthrough. While all of that pronounces us, unworthy Jesus pronounces us redeemed, free, worthy and not hidden. Don’t stay hidden come out into the open, the open arms of God released from shame, fear and regret. God released you from the sting of shame, fear and regret, released from the finger point, rear keeping folks who will help you to continue in your prison of those things. “YOU ARE RELEASED”! Selah Chayil
