As bad and as powerful as guilt feels, shame is much worse. Unlike guilt, shame is less offense and more self-focused. Shame wonders if I did what I did is because I am innately not-right. Some researchers prefer to speak of shame as “self-condemnation.”
Morrison writes that shame is “that feeling of self-castigation which arises when we are convinced that there is something about ourselves that is wrong, inferior, flawed, weak, or dirty. Shame is fundamentally a feeling of loathing against ourselves; a hateful vision of ourselves through our own eyes.”
All of us suffer from shame to one degree or another. Our subconscious knee jerk reaction? We will hide, cover up our shame, make excuses and at times go on the offensive if that would take the gaze of other’s off of us. Author Morrison writes, “Shame is difficult to treat because, so often, it is difficult to find. We hide our shame behind the guises of anger, contempt, depression, denial, or superiority.”
But there is hope. That is our passion at the Gospel-App. Shame now has an enemy, a relentless predator that can search out and begin to destroy every last vestige of its critical dehumanizing being. Here’s something very important to hear. You can’t get there on your own. You need help, you need help from God. Most of us were not taught how to access that help. Particularly in the tsunami of ongoing pummeling from our critical inner voice, 24/7. So we will teach you how. Simple straightforward baby steps—wildly biblical, very doable. Say the following Simple Uncluttered Gospel 2x a day for 45 days. Here it is.
“Jesus-Follower, strictly because of what Jesus did for you 2000 years ago, God actually loves you. He loves you with all of His heart, as much as the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. He can’t love you any more or any less than He does right now. He loves you as you are, not as you should be or could be. You can’t add to this love or take away from it. Now I get it, it often feels like you’ve messed it up, or need to do something so that God would like you better. Not so.
How do you experience it more now?
Simple! Good news, there is something that you can do, and are invited to do. You can take daily baby-steps to ask the Spirit inside of you to make you know, experience, and feel, just how much God loves you right now. Just ask. Ask again later today. Ask tomorrow. Make it a spiritual habit.”
You can get this Simple Uncluttered Gospel in bookmark form from our website www.gospel-app.com, or my podcast webpage, www.gospelrant.com. Get a bunch, they are inexpensive. Put them all over your home, your workplace. Hand them out to friends and family. They will thank you.
The goal is for you to really experience the love of God for unlovables, unloved, and unlovely. Let me know what you think. [email protected].
FYI, I am writing a book on overlooked and underappreciated women of the Old Testament. The tentative title is “Dance, Daughters of the Most High!” It is a fun and important read particularly for Christian women today who often feel like the woman at the well. I get it. I think that you will find this book wildly encouraging. If you want to know when it is published (early 2024?) send me a note, [email protected].
Check out the other God’s Love for the Unlovable shows on many Lifestream TV’s networks (Women, Drug Free, Men, Church, Lifestream Network). Also, check out my website, www.Gospel-App.com. Lots of resources, videos, programs, books, and bookmarks, many free.
Take heart, child of God.
