THE SHAME SLAYER

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Like many people in our world today, most of my life I’ve struggled with a shame-based identity. Growing up in a home where my parents frequently argued and yelled at each other and being molested as a boy laid a foundation of shame in my life. When I came to Christ as a young adult, this bout with shame didn't disappear, though it lessened. Then in my early years in Christ I somehow developed a performance-based identity where I sought to earn God's favor and love.

SHAME SLAYER #1 - LISTENING to GOD

Listening to God has been a tremendous help in beginning to break free from shame and to learn to rest in the love of God. As I listen, it's as if God, my True Father, is calling me into becoming who He created me to be and away from the false self-identity that is the fruit of looking to the creature to tell me who I am rather than allowing the Creator to define me. The book I wrote, A Guide for Listening and Inner-Healing Prayer, contains many of the things God has communicated to me that have accelerated this inner metamorphosis.

 

SOS 8:7 says “many rivers can not quench love” and “if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.” Truth is that real love cannot be earned. As Philip Yancey said in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace: 

Nothing you can do can ever make God love you more. Nothing you can do can ever make God love you less.

God, Your agape love is freely given to me and based on the fact that You are love. You chose to love me before I was even born and to have compassion on me because that’s just who You are! 

SHAME SLAYER #2 - PRACTICING GOD'S PRESENCE

Another experiential truth that’s been slaying the shame I’ve carried is what some like to call practicing the presence of God. A verse I memorized years ago but didn’t really grasp is: “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me …” (Galatians 2:20) Jesus has taken up residence in the very core of my being. He has also promised that He will never ever leave me or forsake me. I’ve had friends that have said they loved me and later abandoned me. But God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has stuck with me in both the good times, but especially in the bad ones. Even when I sin He doesn’t desert me. (Romans 7:14-25, Psalm 65:3-4, 1 John 1:7-10) 

Jesus, Your tenacity in loving me is slowly but steadily slaying my shame. What’s the old song say? “No one ever cared for me like Jesus, there's no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me; O how much He cares for me.” 

A couple of great quotes I've read:

“Love slays what we have been that we may be what we were not.” — St. Augustine

“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.” — C. S. Lewis.

Thank You Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that I belong to You ... that You chose me before I was even born to be faultless before you. Thanks for Your unconditional love, that I enjoy two-way communication with You, and for the fact that You reside deep within me and are never going to leave me or forsake me.

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 ESV. 

Check Out this Worship Video on Slaying Shame by BarlowGirl

"I Need You to Love Me" 

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