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2013 Lifestyle Week 8 Devo (MW)
1 John 2:28 “And now, dear children, continue to live in
fellowship with Christ so that when he returns you will be full
of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.”
Who shrank back from God in shame when they found
that their connection with him was broken? Adam and Eve.
I learned from Dr. Jim Wilder that SHAME can be understood
as mis-attunement, being out of harmony or loosing
connection. JOY-RING
In it’s proper place, the God-Given emotion of shame is a signal
that alerts us when we are out of harmony with people who
are important to us. It is temporary and guides us to do what’s
necessary to reconnect.
But TOXIC SHAME is pervasive and crippling, a sense that I am
permanently defective, not good enough, unworthy of love and
there’s no hope for change.
It is profoundly isolating – it makes us shrink back from
fellowship , from connecting with God and others.
Our Father doesn’t want that for us.
The antidote for TOXIC SHAME is JOY.
RELATIONAL CONNECTION JOY.
God didn’t leave Adam and Eve in shame. He immediately
provided the sacrificial system as a way for them to reconnect
with him.
And JESUS has provided permanent reconnection, harmony,
and fellowship with God by his death and resurrection.
Some of you have had connection experiences with the Lord as
a result of this class.
Have you noticed that when you are in His presence and
interacting with him, what a difference it makes in how you
feel about yourself?
And that as you are in fellowship with Him, you are less and
less likely to shrink back from him in shame?
That’s my experience too.
“And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so
that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink
back from him in shame.”
I like to think of this as not only when Christ ultimately returns,
but even when he returns to my awareness, when I return to
spend time with him, to turn my attention back to him, return
to the connection memory or experience I’ve had with him
before.
He’s always glad to be with me and the more I fellowship with
him, the more free I am to always be glad to be with him, full of
courage to run to meet him and not shrink back in shame.