Change comes from believing Christ died to take away your shame

Shame always results in a loss of dignity. Shame is defined as a negative emotion caused by an awareness of wrongdoing, hurt ego, or guilt. Shame is often caused by “getting caught”, embarrassment, or public exposure - sometimes caused by your own choices, and sometimes caused by the violation of others.

                            

Shame produces emotional pain. When a person is shamed, his or her emotions are damaged. This causes a sense of loss, hurt, and devaluation. Some may say: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." God's Word, however, teaches that words can injure the innermost part of a person (Proverbs 18:8). Unlike broken skin, a broken spirit does not automatically heal. Emotional pain can be so real it can actually cause physical pain such as heaviness in the chest, stomach pain, digestive irregularities, headaches, sleep disturbances, and others.

Pain calls for relief. We lick our emotional wounds by medicating our pain through a multitude of ways: sports, food, money, sex, TV, personal achievements, immoral relationships, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, rage and various other things. Some people use religion to evade their pain and deny their true feelings. Many hurting people turn to the church in an effort to alleviate the pain. After being involved for a while, they often drop out, still hurting. Church is an escape for them like drugs to an addict. They want to “feel” better but fail to address the reason that causes the pain. When the pain continues to reoccur, they think church just isn’t for them so they give up.

Some relief methods like food are not wrong in themselves but we can abuse them by over indulgence in an attempt to cover up the hurts. If the method of relief in itself is sinful then the individual feels guilt which produces more shame-pain which, in turn, calls for more of the addictive substance or practice and so the cycle continues. 

Jesus completely took away and identified with all of us in our shame. Jesus made those He contacted feel better about him or herself: an adulteress walked away with her sense of worth restored (John 8). Jesus is our substitute and is able to meet our deepest needs. Jesus bore our shame so we could be emotionally healed of shame and disgrace. Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be "...despised and rejected of men" (Isaiah 53:3). Christ was mocked and devalued, jeered and mistreated on our behalf. He was spit upon and He was hung naked. In the Old Testament, both spitting and nakedness were forms of shame.

Jesus is not only our Guilt Offering, but our Shame Bearer. All His sufferings on our behalf were for our shame when Jesus was publicly beaten, mocked, whipped, and nailed to the Cross. Those who turn to Him will no longer need to medicate pain because their feelings will be healed and their compulsions will be forgotten in the light of His grace. We can believe that He "...carried our sorrows" for us (Isaiah 53:4). However your dignity may have suffered, you need to realize that part of the work of God in your life is to restore you to wholeness in how you see yourself.

Can you remember times when your sense of value was cheapened by the behavior of others? Do you say things about yourself that others said about you long ago?