Having a Heart in a Sometimes Heartless World
Day 188 – Regret
Scripture focus: The goal of this thief is to totally waste and devastate your life. If nothing stops him, he’ll leave you insolvent, flat broke, and cleaned out in every area of your life. You’ll end up feeling as if you are finished and out of business! Rick Renner’s amplified translation of John 10:10
Eventually, most of us figure out that we’ve been had by the enemy. And it’s not like he sticks around to comfort us in our loss. The second we realize that we’ve fallen into his trap, he turns on the taunt.
“How could you have been so stupid?” He says.
“You knew that was wrong!” He condemns.
“You’ll never get it right. Give up.” He mocks.
The enemy hasn’t changed his plan since the Garden of Eden – because it is an effective one. Once we wake up and realize that we’ve acted like big goofs – our shame is triggered. Sometimes we have guilt over our actions, and that would be fine, because we could learn about amends making and restitution. But the shame is a killer. It’s the emotional voice in our head crying out – “You’re broken and you’ll never be fixed. Something is wrong with you – more wrong than most. You are terminally unique in your brokenness, so there’s no need to look for a solution. What you need is some comfort.”
And thus, the cycle begins again.
I’m not kidding you. Breaking the cycle of shame is work that only God can accomplish. Fortunately for us, God actually loves his work – and his people.
For today, it’s my prayer that we recognize that when we’re fighting with our spouses, our parents, our children, our boss, our employee, our friend or even our postal worker – we’re really fighting against someone on our team. There is an enemy who has come to kill, steal, and destroy – but he’s not of human flesh. He wants to totally waste and devastate our lives. He wants to leave us without relationship. He wants us to discard friends and family. He wants us to get out of the hope business.
But know this: it isn’t over until God says so. God’s prevailing purposes prevail. He’s in the business of rescuing the perishing – even when the one perishing is you!
Recommended reading: 1 Chronicles 3 and 4 in the morning; Acts 24 in the evening
Eventually, most of us figure out that we’ve been had by the enemy. And it’s not like he sticks around to comfort us in our loss. The second we realize that we’ve fallen into his trap, he turns on the taunt.
“How could you have been so stupid?” He says.
“You knew that was wrong!” He condemns.
“You’ll never get it right. Give up.” He mocks.
The enemy hasn’t changed his plan since the Garden of Eden – because it is an effective one. Once we wake up and realize that we’ve acted like big goofs – our shame is triggered. Sometimes we have guilt over our actions, and that would be fine, because we could learn about amends making and restitution. But the shame is a killer. It’s the emotional voice in our head crying out – “You’re broken and you’ll never be fixed. Something is wrong with you – more wrong than most. You are terminally unique in your brokenness, so there’s no need to look for a solution. What you need is some comfort.”
And thus, the cycle begins again.
I’m not kidding you. Breaking the cycle of shame is work that only God can accomplish. Fortunately for us, God actually loves his work – and his people.
For today, it’s my prayer that we recognize that when we’re fighting with our spouses, our parents, our children, our boss, our employee, our friend or even our postal worker – we’re really fighting against someone on our team. There is an enemy who has come to kill, steal, and destroy – but he’s not of human flesh. He wants to totally waste and devastate our lives. He wants to leave us without relationship. He wants us to discard friends and family. He wants us to get out of the hope business.
But know this: it isn’t over until God says so. God’s prevailing purposes prevail. He’s in the business of rescuing the perishing – even when the one perishing is you!
Recommended reading: 1 Chronicles 3 and 4 in the morning; Acts 24 in the evening
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2 comments:
When I find myself in that shame cycle, feeling bad about ME not only what I've done but who I AM, I find it hard to remember what I just read. "Breaking the cycle of shame is work that only God can accomplish." Once again I'm trying to do a job that is God's job. I have learned to let him have his other jobs back. I believe I can let him have this one too!
Good for you! It's so easy to let the difficulty of the task defeat us - but when I think about it, if God is for it - who can be against it?
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