From a poem I wrote several years ago. . .
"The year floats away
swallowed up by persistent
tides that will return to
scatter memories along the shore,
the sweet and the bittersweet. "
I hope you are filled with great expectations in the new year. It's always exciting for me to watch what God is doing in my life and in the lives of those I love. I've learned that with great joy, great sorrow may also come. Good times, bad times - I'm confident that God is always in charge.
One thing we must leave behind in the old year is our shame. We can dump old shame then pick up new shame. It seems to be in our DNA and causes great trouble in our life. We all deal with shame at one time or another. Outside of Christ shame appears to be a part of our humanity. Romans 3:11 tells us we are not perfect, there is no one who is 'righteous', no, not one. From my pastor, "God removes our shame and replaces it with honor. Shame never has the last word, the King does."
Shame begins with something we did (or are doing) or was forced on us that we judge to be wrong or bad. This leads to feelings of guilt, our guilt becomes our shame. I recently heard a good message about this topic and was immediately reminded what a terrible hold shame can have on our lives. We instinctively hate this feeling so often try and get rid of the guilt and shame by blaming someone else. This only makes it worse. Not being able to take responsibility for our behavior and actions is not a good coping skill. Looking for a scapegoat is a Biblical concept.
Leviticus 16 describes how the Jews were to 'atone' for their sins. In vs. 20, it describes how the Lord told Aaron, brother of Moses, how he should take a live goat, put his hands on the goat's head and confess the "wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites - all their sins - and put them on the goat's head ." This was a picture of transferring the sin to the poor little goat who was then released into the desert. This is where we get the term 'scapegoat'. The goat carried the shame away. . .'not my fault'.
Adam and Eve experienced shame in the Garden of Eden. They did something, ate the fruit of the tree that God had told them to not eat from, so they hid from God - Genesis 3 - got leaves to cover their naked bodies (picture of sin) and Adam declared that it was Eve who made him do it! Not my fault Lord, this woman made me do it!
The Bible is full of both new and old testament people who were caught up in shame. Think of King David and Bathsheba; David suffered terribly from the shame, but he owned it and asked God to forgive him. . ."blot out all of my iniquities", read Psalm 51 to get a taste of David's agony over what he'd done.
Jesus told his disciple Peter that he would deny him, and that is exactly what Peter did. I am sure Peter felt great shame. Jesus himself experienced shame...
Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Jesus is our scapegoat; he alone is able to carry away our sinful nature and make us presentable to God. He did this on the cross so "...count yourselves dead to sin (and shame) but alive to God in Christ Jesus" - Romans 6:11.
Romans 8:1 "There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus." I often shared this verse with the inmates when I taught Bible studies in my local jail. As they came to believe this, they became different people. I always loved the look of peace on their faces. I also shared these verses. . .
Psalm 34:5 "Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame."
Romans 9:33 "...and the one who trusts in him (the believers) will never be put to shame."
There will always be someone around who will try and lay a 'guilt trip' on you. Our natural response is to fight back, but don't. People who do this are not happy with themselves, they feel shame and don't know how to handle it, so they want to put shame on you - as a believer, you do not have to buy into that.
At times I would tell one of my five children, "shame on you" because of something they had done. I never felt good about it because I didn't want them to be ashamed. I did want this potent word to help them realize what they did wrong and hopefully change their ways. From time to time I need to tell my naughty little 8 lb dog that he "should be ashamed" of himself - he always seems to feel a little guilty. I'm crazy in love with my little Rudy, he knows that too. Know that Jesus is crazy in love with you and that is why He paid the penalty for our sin and rid us of shame.
Be who you are in God's eyes - a righteous child of His! I pray that your coming year 2020 will be filled with new hope, a closer relationship with Jesus and the knowledge that you don't need to live in shame; Jesus covered it on the cross.
Thank you Lord for the love you have for your children.
