Don’t Play The Shame Game
Genesis 3:7-11
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
Isaiah 61:1
61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
I have titled today’s blog, “Don’t Play the Shame Game,” because shame is one of the main tools that Satan uses to shut us down. If he can make you feel guilt or shame, he knows that he can control and manipulate your thoughts and your actions. Shame is simply another trap to hold you in bondage, even longer than the incident that brought you to that point in the first place.
Recently I read an article, and the author expressed their fear of sharing that they had been having suicidal thoughts. They expressed that God had delivered them from these thoughts, but they were still hesitant to share with others what they had been going through. This broke my heart! To have lost hope to the point that they were having these thoughts in the first place had to have been difficult enough. I would imagine the feelings of shame that come with this, making it even more difficult to open up and share.
I can assure you that if you are allowing shame to hold you, hostage, today; there is someone else that has been through what you are going through. You are not alone. There is nothing new under the sun. Do not allow Satan to make you think that you are alone, and do not allow him to isolate you.
When I was sixteen years old, I was the victim of attempted date rape. Praise God I was able to fight the guy off and escape. I literally ran for my life, with him chasing me through a college campus. Boy did the shame and embarrassment set in. What would people think if I shared this? Would they think that I had poor judgment in selecting a boyfriend? What would my dad do to this person if I dared to tell my parents? All sorts of thoughts ran through my head. All of a sudden, I was protecting the perpetrator. What was I thinking? I did not know it at sixteen, but these were all tricks of Satan. I carried that secret until I was an adult, and why? Because of the shame and embarrassment attached to it.
What I have come to realize is that, where there is a shame, sin is always attached. Somewhere and somehow, Satan is involved. Shame was first seen in the garden after Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit. Satan had tempted them into doing something that God had asked them not to do, and then he slithered away leaving his victims in shame. Genesis 3:7-11. This is the same thing that Satan the perpetrator does to us; he tempts us, violates us with his lies, and then leaves us, his victims in shame.
Remember this, Romans 8: 28 says that God can work good from all situations. When God allows you to go through something and He gets you safely on the other side of it, I truly believe it is to be shared. It is an experience that now has become your story for ministry purposes, to help someone else through their journey. Please don’t let people think that they are alone. Share your story. You see your story is not about you, it is about God, and His power to free us all from the bondage of Satan’s grip on our lives. Satan comes to rob, kill, steal and destroy. Jesus came to give life and to give it more abundantly and to free the captive. God gives life and Satan takes life.
Be like the woman at the well. I feel sure that she felt some shame when Jesus told her how many husbands she had, but she was willing to run and share all that Jesus had told her. She shares with others of her encounter with Jesus. John 4:39-42. Instead of surrendering to shame, share with others how the power of God showed up and rescued you. You are no longer captive, you have been set FREE.
John 4:39-42
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”