Shame and self pity are two of the Devil’s foremost and effective tricks Eph 6:11, regrettably efficient in sidelining and separating many good followers of Christ. Understandably, nothing can separate us from the love of God Ro 8:35-36, and nothing can take us away from Christ Jn 10:28-29. But we do walk away, perhaps not in belief but in faith, for belief and faith are too different things. I have held the belief that Jesus saved me from the moment I bowed my knee to Him, confessed and professed Him to be my Lord Phil 2:10-11, Ro 10:8-10, I have never turned my back on Him. But, oftentimes I have doubted His good intentions and His willingness to deliver me from sickness and trial. When at once, I again have faith in His good intent, willingness to work in my life, and the truth of His promises, my soul and spirit are reinvigorated and life turns from it’s former dull grey to a new dawn. More simply put I have believed since the day I got saved but I have not always had faith or trusted. The two go hand and hand, we believe, have faith and then are saved and believing gets us to heaven, but faith invigorates and fires up the furnace of life in our soul.
That being said, I believe whoever reads this and is honest within themselves, has experienced the same. Truly this is a troubled life here and the Devil attempts to exploit and take advantage of each and every one of those troubles, trials and failures. If we would NOT be so ignorant of his devices
we would not waste so much time, effort, heartache and pain 2 Cor 2:11.
Shame and self pity are two of the Devil’s foremost and effective tricks Eph 6:11.
Shame Jesus dealt with at the cross. We can believe it or we can have faith in it. Believing will get us to heaven, but trusting and having faith in that fact will undo the heavy burden of guilt and shame, change our life now, and keep us on track serving the Lord.
Shame is something Jesus dealt with at the cross, and if we choose to carry the shame on us, shame on us. We take it away from Christ and negate the effective power of the cross for our lives today. At the same time, we take the focus off of Christ and put it on us essentially trying to make ourselves our savior. When once we take our eyes off ourselves and look unto Jesus the Finisher of our faith Heb12:1 everything changes. That is the personally transforming power of the cross. Even Jesus despised the shame that He was put through.
I guess there is true shame for sins we willfully commit, but there has been a cure for that for nearly 2000 years. If we have that kind of shame, we should come to Jesus confess and repent and He will make us once again shame free. 1 John 1:9 is one of the most glorious passages of scripture, for if we follow it’s advice we will live shame free.
In the beginning I said shame and pity. Pity looks a lot like shame but is very different. Shame Jesus dealt with at the cross, but self-pity is a cruel idol we make of ourselves and there is a demon behind every idol. We should leave the pitying to God Psalm 103:13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. Take it from our selves and give it to our brothers, and the poor Matt 18:33.
Remember what I said in the beginning, these are the Devil’s devices and we don’t have to fall for it. Shouldn’t we rather let God crush him under our feet Romans 16:20?
