Life Without Shame

“May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, so that I will not be ashamed.” Psalm 119:80

Life Without Shame

Blameless – Shame destroys.  It is far more crippling than guilt.  If I am guilty, I can repay.  If I am guilty, I can repent.  If I am guilty, I can recover.  But shame is not about what I have done.  Shame is about who I am and from that there is no recovery.  To be ashamed is to be internally worthless.

Nothing hurts more than shame.  No matter how prosperous or ethical I am on the outside, if shame finds its way into my life, I am a most miserable person.  I confront the constant reminder that if people only knew what I know about me, they would never love me or accept me.  Shame makes me live as a lie.

Shame pushes me toward addiction.  Since I have no solution for being internally worthless, I must escape the pain.  There is only suicide or addiction.  Addiction is nothing more than running from my shame by altering my emotionally damaged inner world with the use of some mind-numbing outer action.  Until I find an answer for my shame, I will never be free of my addiction.

And David gives me the answer.  Literally this verse says, “Let be my heart blameless in Your statutes”.  It isn’t David who does the work of making his heart blameless.  It’s God.  David has no power to remove shame.  Neither do you or I.  But God does.  He can wash my heart in the sacrifice of His Son.  He can remove my shame as He removes my guilt and blame.  More than half of the uses of this Hebrew word are about the sacrifices.  This is a word for redemption that goes much deeper than removing my guilt.  I am never free until God removes my shame.  That’s why He must create in me a new heart.

God gives us what we most desire:  life without shame.