GOD COVERS SHAME

"I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered in shame" (Psalms 34:4-5, NIV).

 

A friend of mine related a life lesson that the Lord had taught her, “God is not ashamed when she sinned.”  As she related to me, the many times that she had become depressed when she did not always act as a Christian, my mind went back to the days of my childhood.  During the era that I was raised, a child’s behavior reflected on how others viewed his or her parents—at least this was the way my parents taught me.  So, if I or one of my brothers or sisters did not behave well in public then our parents would bemoan the fact that we brought shame upon the family name, and our parents would “never be able to show their face in public again.”  Of course they always did; however, this was so ingrained in our thinking as children that it carried over into our adult lives, and translated into how we viewed our Heavenly Father.     

 

My friend’s life lesson caused me to begin to reflect on the fact that many of our ideas on how God thinks about us are simply not based upon fact; but, rather on a faulty belief system whose biases cloud our view of how God really thinks about His creation.  Perhaps the root of this problem began in the Garden when Eve’s view of God was distorted and she and her husband sinned.  After Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, they withdrew from God because they were ashamed: God was not ashamed He immediately began to deal with the problem and covered their shame (Genesis 3).

 

God is not ashamed of sin because He covered humanities sin with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.  His blood sacrifice never looses it power, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  God still covers sin for those of us who love Him, but at times our behavior does not reflect who we truly are as His children, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). 

 

Today, do not allow the enemy or cultural ideas distort your view of God and how He thinks about you.  He is not ashamed of you.  If you have done wrong, confess it to the Father, repent—turn from doing the same thing over and over again—by faith accept the fact that your Heavenly Father is not holding anything against you—and begin to conduct yourself as a child of the living God.

 

Prayer—Father I thank You that You are never ashamed of me.  Lord forgive for the times that I have thought that You were ashamed of me, cleanse my mind and my heart from false ideas and view points of who You really are, in Jesus Name. Amen