No More Hiding - Seen and Found - Denise Pass
Scripture of the week:
Psalm 69:19-20, 35 (EXB)
“You see [know] my shame [reproach; scorn] and disgrace. You know all my enemies and what they have said [ The humiliation of all my foes is before you].20 Insults [Reproach; Scorn] have broken my heart and left me weak [I am depressed]. I looked [hoped; waited] for sympathy [pity; consolation], but there was none; I found no one to comfort me. 35 God, you are wonderful in your Temple. The God of Israel gives his people strength and power.”
Shame RX of the week:
We are seen and hidden in Christ, no longer hiding from shame.
Shame is one of those things we all want to hide. We want everyone to see our best side and we don’t want them to be influenced by people who are shaming us, even if it is just their opinion. Why? Because we think somehow that a definition of us that is “less than” glamorous will somehow define us and give us an identity we would never want.
So we try and hide it. Make it disappear. But shame is stubborn. It penetrates our souls while we try to cover it up and we cannot escape it. While we try to avoid its definition, it reaches us in still other ways. Insecurity. Depression. Anxiety. Fear. It influences us and robs us of the worth Christ died to give us.
That is what makes the Scripture above so precious. God sees us in our shame – every bit of it – and He is not surprised, not swayed by it. The shame we do not deserve and the shame, well, that we own. He just loves us, anyway, at all times. And. He. Removes. All. Of. Our. Shame.
No more hiding. Fully known. Fully seen. Fully accepted. All the fears of someone seeing that *gasp* we might have some flaw (which we all do), are all relieved with the knowledge that our shame is known and our God covered it all for us.
Learning to walk in this freedom is hard. We have spent so many years worshiping at the feet of man’s opinion, we have to realize that the temporary station of mankind does not give them the final say.
And God’s definition surpasses any other definition of us. More than that, God gives us strength and power to rise above any and all shame.
When we cry out to God and ask Him to save and protect us (Psalm 69:29), our great God hears and plucks us out of whatever shame is surrounding us. We are hidden in Christ, no longer hiding from shame.
