Shame Has No Claim

Guilt whispers,“You did wrong.”

A wound that can be tended,

a path that can be chosen differently.

But shame…

Shame says, “You are the wrong.” It tries to stitch itself into your name, to turn a moment into an identity. It grows from sins we’ve done and sins done to us…and there is a quiet kind of death in living beneath its shadow.

Yet God calls us into the light. He has changed you. He has claimed you. He has named you as His. Heaven will not hold the labels earth tries to glue to your skin.

Jesus has taken our shame on the cross, and in Him, it no longer belongs to us. “Such were some of you”… Were, not are. He does not define who we are by what we have done.

Yet God calls us into the light. He has changed you. He has claimed you.

Oh, to see myself as He sees me…covered in Christ, held in grace. How dare I lift my opinion of my failures above God’s declaration of freedom?

Shame cannot be defeated by more shame. Speak to yourself with the same gentleness you offer others. It is not harshness, but the kindness of God, that turns the heart toward home.

Walk with others, as fellowship breaks the spell of secrecy, silence, and judgment. Shame withers when brought into the presence of love.