What is shame?
What does shame feel like?
When do you feel shame?
Why do you feel shame?
Is shame a good thing? When?
When is shame not helpful?
How can you avoid shame?
“In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.”
-Psalm 31:1 (NIV)
Shame is social pain, and we are not meant to live in shame as a way of life, but we all have sinned. Only by being made right with God can we be saved from it’s strangling effects on our emotions. Like physical pain, it is not good to be in it always, but it keeps us from dying or becoming infected and sick, because it is an early warning of a greater injury, if we don’t deal with it appropriately right away.
What happens to people who can’t feel pain?
What may happen to those who don’t feel shame when they should?
“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
-Romans 1:32 (NIV)
2011/01/24
-Ezra