Shake Off Shame and Enjoy Grace
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As I go through training to teach in my church’s children’s ministry, something in their policies and procedures caught my eye. Regarding punishment, the guide explained the church’s policy of timeouts, how long they should be and how to talk to the child about how they disobeyed. But, the guide said, once the child’s punishment is complete, they should rejoin the class and be treated the same as all the other children.
“Jesus’s death and resurrection is the only remedy for the shame we feel over our grievous sin-failures (Hebrews 9:26). There is nowhere else to go with our sin; there is no other atonement (Acts 4:12). But if we hide in Jesus, he provides us a complete cleansing (1 John 1:9).”
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/shuang paul wang
Ultimately, feeling ashamed comes from a feeling of inadequacy. It is a fear that you aren’t living up to others’ – or your own – expectations. But we can be confidant in these truths:
1. God created you intentionally, and He knows you better than you know yourself.
2. You are His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).
3. God loves you. His love is more all-encompassing and purer than any love we have ever seen on earth. His love defies our human comprehension.
Dr. Woodrow Kroll beautifully explains God’s love this way:
“If God is love, and I am unlovely, then I can't say that He loves me because of what's in me. I have to say He loves me because of what's in Him. God loves me because it is the character of God to love. And if I accept that love, God loves it when I accept His love. He wants all of us to accept His love. Now, God has certain conditions upon which we please Him, but no conditions upon which He loves us.”
God is love. He does not choose to love us because we are lovely, but because it’s who He is. He knows what sins you struggle with. He knows the things you’ve done in your past, and the things you are going to do in the future. It does not change the way He feels about you.
My church’s motto is “enjoy grace.” I think that’s a fitting way to wrap this article up. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We are forgiven and saved. We are loved – not because of what we do or who we are – but because that is God’s very nature. “God is love,” writes 1 John 4:8. Therefore we can shake off not only the burden of sin, but the burden of shame and guilt. Enjoy the grace we’ve been given. Praise God for it! And live your life as an offering of thanks for the incredible, life-altering love that we’ve been given.
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Bethany Pyle is the editor for Bible Study Tools.com and the design editor for Crosscards.com. She has a background in journalism and a degree in English from Christopher Newport University. When not editing for Salem, she enjoys good fiction and better coffee.