Things AboveSample

HOW TO ENJOY GOD WHEN I FEEL GUILT AND SHAME

Why don’t I feel intimate with God when I feel guilty? Why does intimacy with God seem to diminish when I feel the weight of shame on my shoulders? 

Jesus taking our guilt and shame onto himself and off of us is a common line shared while proclaiming the good news. But if Jesus has removed the guilt and shame from our lives, then why so often do we feel disconnected from God?

Guilt and shame have two things in common. Number 1 – The devil loves to use both together to diminish/destroy our relationship with God. Number 2 – Guilt and shame can both influence the perception of our identity. 

Guilt is a position or status as a result of our sin, and we often feel shame when our sin is exposed. The exposure of our sin can attach a false identity to ourselves that we end up believing. Looking at a biblical view, all mankind is guilty before God because of their disobedience towards Him...because our status before God, before placing our faith in Jesus, is guilty. When shame is then added to this equation, we can find ourselves thinking, “Because I sinned, therefore I am…”. This identity links our value in God's eyes to how well we perform.  

To combat guilt and shame, we often find ourselves running to self-justification, self-righteousness, and any other coping mechanisms that will either give us a new identity or relieve us of a hurtful identity. We try to mend our relationship with God by tweaking our status in the hope that God looks and approves of our newfound “Identity”. 

We don’t feel intimate with God because we believe that part of the consequence for our sin means that the value God places on us declines. Not true! It’s easy to find ourselves in a state where we have forgotten or don’t even believe that God has done everything needed to make us righteous before Him. God wants an intimate relationship with us, and the only way this can happen is because Jesus took our sin with him to the cross. On the cross, Jesus exchanged our guilt for his innocence, and because we are now innocent in God's eyes, the shame from our sin no longer defines who we are. 

Intimacy with God can be so much greater in times of guilt and shame because God fully knows us, AND he fully loves us. Let that sink in. He sees us clean and without sin. We are a new creation only in Jesus Christ. 

Don’t forget that this devotional is designed to be paired with the podcast series ‘things above’ of the Generation Podcast. So have a listen to episode 7 of the podcast for a deeper discussion on how to enjoy God when I feel guilt and shame.