Producing the Outcome of God's Purpose - Part IV
The Pain of Shame
by Dr. John Tetsola

Last month we saw that a major attack against our hope is the pain and fear of enduring our cross. The dread of your cross could be the very ingredient that saps you of hope, which is the fuel of pursuit and endurance. The enemy attacks your hope because he knows it is a key ingredient to the manifestation of any promise, as well as the fuel to bearing the cross of your promise. Now, let’s observe how the pain of shame is another key ingredient used by the enemy to destroy our hope and level of pursuit.

O my God, I trust, lean on, rely on, and am confident in You. Let me not be put to shame or [my hope in You] be disappointed…
Psalm 25:2a AMP

Shame is a powerful and painful emotion that can paralyze and immobilize the hope of your pursuit. Shame attacks the believer’s hope and has the ability to cause you to withdraw into a shell. It can cause you to begin to disbelieve your potential and ability. You can become so emotionally maimed by a situation that your expectation and believing in that area becomes so weakened that it eventually gets destroyed. Shame is an emotion that is created by the consciousness of shortcomings, defeat, and the lack of accomplishment. It’s dangerous because it causes you to see yourself from the perspective of your situation. For example, maybe you believed that God spoke to you concerning an area of pursuit that you launched out upon. But when you find yourself failing in it or being defeated, a painful emotion of shame can be created out of it where you end up disbelieving your potential in that area, and even the voice of direction that you obeyed in your pursuit. This can shatter your confidence and prevent you from ever believing in that which was promised to you.

THE DANGERS OF SHAME

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Proverbs 24:16

There are key things to understand about the pain of shame. FIRST, the pain of shame itself is not produced by any specific situation or event, but rather by the individual’s interpretation of his situation, circumstance or event. In other words, the way you interpret and process what happens to you as a believer will determine the strength and power of the pain of shame that you experience from that situation. Most people that struggle with shame in their life struggle with pride. They are always concerned about how people will view them and what people are thinking about them. It’s often an image issue. SECOND, the pain of shame occurs when a believer judges his or her actions as a failure in regards to his own standards, rules or goals. When the pain of shame occurs in your life, it’s because you have personally judged yourself as a failure because of the standards you have imposed on your own life. Every one of us has some form of standard or goal in life, and it differs from person to person. The pain of shame occurs in how we judge our actions in comparison to our standards and goals in life. This is why that which creates shame in one person may not cause shame in another. THIRD, when the pain of shame occurs in a believer’s life, it disrupts his or her ongoing behavior and causes confusion in their thoughts and ability to function properly. As a result, their emotions are affected, which in turn affects their expectations of God. Don’t allow the power of shame to destroy your hope of what God can do in your life. Defeat this paralyzing emotion with the truth of God’s Word, and with the knowledge that the righteous falls seven times, but as he maintains his expectation and outlasts the problem, he gets back up again and again (Prov. 24:16).