Healing What You Can't EraseSample

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF SHAME

What is holding us back from experiencing God’s power for heart transformation in those deep areas of hurt we’ve experienced? I wholeheartedly believe that shame is a dominant driver in keeping us stuck in the cycle of pain.

Now, in the beginning, there was no shame, for sin and its consequences had not yet entered the world. “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25).

As a result of their sin, however, Adam’s and Eve’s eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. Their innocence before the Lord and before each other was replaced by guilt and shame. And the effect wasn’t just for them—that’s when sin opened the door for shame to manifest itself in all of humanity.

Shame is one of the most primitive emotions known to the human race, and we all experience it today. But shame’s potency is more insidious than what we might typically ascribe to an emotion.

A person whose spirit is broken will view life’s adversity through a lens of defeat and despair, seeing their mistakes and missed oppor­tunities as an indictment on their identity. And if the Enemy of our souls can use shame to inform our identities, we will live as orphans who are motivated to self-protect and self-promote, not as adopted children of a king who are called “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37).

How do we deal with our shame? Not by looking within ourselves for a solution, but by looking up. I can’t wait to tell you more about this in the next devotional.

What role does shame play in your inner turmoil and grief? When was the seed of shame planted?