In the Bible shame is a consequence of sin. Sin we have said previously is “missing the mark”. Breaking the boundary that God Himself has set for us. This is what we see happening with Adam and Eve after they sinned. Shame entered the picture. Joshua Finley says “Shame doesn’t just want to remind you of WHAT you’ve done, it wants to reshape how you think about WHO you are. Guilt deals with activity. Shame revolves around identity.”
I found the story of Mephibosheth remarkably interesting in my study. It captures both shame and honor. His name means shame destroyer or image breaker. The story is in 2 Samuel. The guy was lame. His nurse had dropped him as they fled from the royal residence in Gibeah after his father and grandfather died in battle. 2 Samuel 9:5-7 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. 6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth! ”At your service,” he replied. 7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
Mephibosheth, the destroyer of shame, is living in Lodebar, which means a place without order; disorderly; no leader; not governed; rebellious; no shepherd; without pasture; no issue; barren; without speech; dumb; not the word or oracle; false; untrue. No word. No communication. A place that rubs shame in – he lived in “nothing land”. In Lodebar, Communication/ Word of God is not found; Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD). The LORD, through David, restored him, a beautiful picture of our own restoration from a shame-based identity to a Grace-based identity. In Christ, we are delivered from isolation, desolation, and separation from God into the kingdom of His son, where the Presence of God is abundant, where His rest is assured, where every limitation is broken as we embrace our new identity- IN CHRIST. (Check out Psalm 23) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,
In the case of Jabez, his name was connected to pain and shame; this man did nothing evil; he was born and named Jabez, which reminds me of our condition as sinners. David said in sin my mother conceived me, that is the same case in each of lives we are born as sons of disobedience but He who did not commit any sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. He yearned for love and change; God answered him, and his name, Jabez, no longer mattered!
In Christ, we have been given a new name such as Born again – 1 Peter 2:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Child of God– John 1:12-13 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
1 John 3:1-3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Chosen – John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Reserved name for you when you overcome! Revelation 2:17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
I found this scripture remarkably interesting: 1 Corinthians 13:5 TPT ‘Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor….
Trafficking means trading in something illegal – it is illegal in the kingdom of God to traffic in shame- imagine this thing is a commodity that can be traded!!!
Honor means weight, weightiness, importance, glory, and to treat with deference and submission. What a God, full of power, authority, and honor, yet He, in His mightiness, gives honor to us humans!
Psalm 91:14-15 Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
Psalm 8:5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings2 and crowned him with glory and honor.
Let us Pray :
PRAYER – Our Father, we desire to lay hold of the preciousness of Christ” unto believers; help us honor the inestimable value of Christ, teach us to appropriate His value as we remain joined, as living stones, to Him the Chief Cornerstone. May our lives proclaim praises from the sun’s rising to its setting to Your Name, LORD. Lord, You are high above all nations, and Your glory is above the heavens. You are great; You are beautiful and Perfect. Glory, Honor, Power, Praise, and Adoration belong to You. Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.” We step out of every limitation that prevents us from being Your carriers and couriers. AMEN.
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