Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.
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"If there is no guilt, then there should be no shame. Shame can’t coexist with being a Child of God’s because both are polar opposite identities. Either you have one and forfeit the other, or you claim one and deny the other."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 57.
Guilt and shame. We often confuse these two issues in life. Guilt is all about what we do. It is a result of our actions that make guilt a possibility in our lives. Shame, on the other hand is a totally different subject. Shame is about who we are. Guilt might lead to shame if what we feel guilty about continues in our lives but the two should never be considered equal. Let's dig into the issues of guilt and shame in relation to how victors might go about living their lives.
Guilt can play an important role in the life of a victor. Guilt comes when we realize that the actions we have taken are below who we are. Guilt can help us to work to make changes in our life to more fully let who we are be more consistent with what we do. It is when we use guilt as a tool to try and motivate others that guilt turns into something that victors need to be very careful with. If someone is placing guilt on you, they are probably stuck in victim thinking in ways that will ultimately victimize you in one way or another.
Like I said earlier, shame can come after prolonged periods of guilt. Shame was something we were never intended to have to contend with in our lives. Check out what happened the moment shame entered into the human experience.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:7 (NIV)
As soon as Adam and Eve turned against the perfect plan God had for them, their eyes were opened to the fact that they were naked. The sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. In another translation it says that they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. Ever since that dark day we have been working just as diligently to cover our shame over things that we have done in our lives as well.
After eating the apple, Adam and Eve jumped straight from guilt to shame. Their shame was so pervasive that their identities changed in significant ways. Shame never was meant to be a part of their lives or ours either. Shame makes us doubt who we are. It makes us see ourselves that one moment seemed perfectly good and the next we are trying to cover ourselves in ways that God never intended for us to consider. When shame becomes part of our identity we are forced to make choices that greatly limit our power at living fully in the status of a victor God made us to be.
I said earlier that shame and our identity as God's Child are polar opposites. I say this because what God says about us can't be said if shame is part of the description. God has no shame. He doesn't allow shame to exist in His presence. The Bible says that in Christ there is no condemnation. Shame is what makes condemnation a reality. That's why our identities have to be so completely devoid of shame as possible. When we try to live the live of a victor with shame in our lives victim thinking is always the result.
God gives us a choice. We can either choose to walk in shame or forfeit the power that comes with being God's Child. God wants us to stake a claim on who we are. By believing and living in the place where God's calls us His Child we step into the power needed to make this world all it is suppose to be in our lives. By claiming our identity in Christ we enable shame to be denied access into our lives. When we choose to stake our claim to shame we deny our true identity and the power that comes with being God's Child.
What's your choice going to be? There will be plenty of things that will happen to you that might bring an element of shame into your life. When that happens - deny it! Push it away. Claim what is rightly yours. You are God's Child and that alone makes you all the victor you will ever need to be in God's eyes.
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