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Prayer for Healing Guilt & Shame

Prayer for Healing Guilt & Shame

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 **Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK Introduction: A hindrance to us in our Christian walk is when we don't believe what God says and don't understand his nature. It is of utmost importance that we take the time to discover who God is for us, studying scripture and understanding His nature toward us to combat the lies of the enemy. Especially as it pertains to understanding how the enemy causes guilt, shame, and fear about how God will respond to us when we sin. The enemy will go to great lengths to keep us separate from God and keeping us separate from Him by causing guilt and shame is the oldest and most frequent trick in his book. In the Garden of Eden, the goal of the serpent was to divide Adam and Eve from their relationship with God by convincing them that His word was not true and that He was trying to keep them from something good. Genesis 3:4-5 "But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes would be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’.” Doesn’t Satan typically entice us with a little bit of truth to get us to believe a lie? The little bit of truth in this lie was that yes, their eyes were opened to their capacity for both good and evil. But Eve had forgotten that God had already created her and Adam in His image. God wasn’t trying to withhold anything good from them but to keep them from a spiritual death. While they gained a level of knowledge, they did not have spiritual wisdom and understanding like God. Before they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no distinction between their spiritual senses and their sense of physicality. They were one with God in spirit, and completely unaware of their physical nature or the emotions of guilt and shame. When they ate the fruit, for the first time they realized they were naked, and it brought them shame, so they hid. Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. I believe that when God inquired of Adam and Eve about where they were, He intended to trigger Adam and Eve's thinking about the fact that they were the ones hiding from Him. He did not separate or divide Himself from them. They chose to hide from Him out of guilt and shame due to the division and lies they believed about Him. Their spiritual senses were dulled, and their physical awareness became heightened, as they realized for the first time that they were naked and became ashamed, so they hid. It was not God who separated from them but a natural result of the shame they felt because they sinned. I often wonder what would have happened in this story if they had known God’s heart toward them, approached Him, and confessed their sin instead of hiding from His presence. The God who desired for your relationship to be restored mercifully sent His Son to die and pay the penalty of sin for us. The God who allows us "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) is the same God who continually offers mercy and grace for us when we sin. As believers, we are IN CHRIST, and we have a new identity. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Verse 21 goes on to say "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” When we continue to take on the identity of guilt and shame, we deny the new identity we received when Jesus died for us. We live as the old creation instead of as a new creation. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4) yet the enemy uses a false perception of Him and our new identity to keep us divided and stuck in guilt and shame. God is offering forgiveness of sins to you- but are you willing to receive it and walk as someone who has been forgiven? This prayer is part of the process of walking out your forgiveness and releasing guilt and shame. In this session, we will #1 Examine your belief about how you interact with God and #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself where you struggle with guilt and shame. #3 Identify any instances or trauma that caused you to have guilt and shame #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you have based on your experiences. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are about Him free from guilt and shame!
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