Shame can keep us away...

from Dr. Don Miles

1 Cor. 2:11-12    Who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him?  So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

How true it is that only we know the deep things of our hearts, the things that we haven’t shared with anyone else and sometimes don’t even want to share within ourselves, things that cause us to feel ashamed and inadequate.  Shame, especially, when we feel a shame before God, can keep us from being the person that God’s Spirit keeps trying to tell us we actually are in Christ Jesus.

Have you considered the possibility that there is a third person in the equation of our personal identity?  Scripture tells us that the devil accuses the saints of God day and night (Rev. 12:10), with the very purpose of causing us to fear that we can never be the person that God created us to be.  Paul reminds us that we have been freely given the things of the Kingdom of God and that we are fully accepted and enabled citizens of this Kingdom.  Indeed, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loved us.  Let’s get growing!