Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Shame

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Today is the Day - Lincoln Brewster, Holding Nothing Back - Jesus Culture, The Time Has Come - Hillsong, From the Inside Out - Hillsong

Read: Romans 3:21-26, Romans 5:1-3 

Think: The other day at my kid’s football game, I saw shame hard at work. A father of one of the players, and friend of ours showed up late. A neighbor of his gave us the low down on where he was- something about a new car, an empty gas tank and his wife being the last one to drive it. By the time he finally showed, we all took friendly jabs at his misfortune. Quite unexpectedly to us, he turned red, stammered a bit, and then called his neighbor a big mouth. Yikes! Later that week, the man’s wife said to me, “He was embarrassed- even though no one thought worse of him, he felt like an idiot in front of everyone because his car didn’t have gas.” 

Shame is a normal and natural feeling that we all possess. It comes when we do something wrong, embarrassing or something just perceived as wrong and embarrassing. It’s kind of like guilt on steroids. Shame doesn’t just say, “Oh, I did something wrong,” it says, “There must be something wrong with me.” 

Because of Adam and Eve’s sinful genetic legacy, we inherited a sense of shame. Shame causes people to hide who they really are, to cover up mistakes, to deny our humanness, and ruminate over how bad we are- just like Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, sewing fig leaves together. 

But Genesis 3:21 says that God made a solution to the shame, “And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.”  The blood of the animal was symbolic for us- something died, so we could live. Something sacrificed so we could be free. For any of us to experience life and freedom, something or someone else had to sacrifice. 

What is needed for our football father, and for all of us, is to accept the grace that God provided through the death of His son, Jesus Christ. Grace is unmerited assistance and favor. Even though Adam and Eve didn’t deserve real clothes after their fateful fall, God gave his assistance and provided what they needed- even at the cost of a precious life.

Romans 3: 22-23 says, “God makes people right with Himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift.” 

Just like light  and dark, grace and shame cannot exist in the same space. When we accept God’s grace over the parts of ourselves that suffer with shame, we are transformed and made new. 

Do: Talk back to the shaming voices in your head and live by the truth of who God has made you to be. 

Pray:  God, thank you for your glorious grace. See the parts in me that keep me hiding in shame. Bring me out, clothe me with your righteousness and help me to accept your grace for my life. Let me be a transforming agent for others who need your grace too.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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