Living life out of your shame sabotages the things God puts in your life to bring restoration. Your shame tells you that you don’t deserve the gift He has laid before you, so you push it away by hiding behind a facade, putting your energy into your work or your hobbies, getting lost in an addiction, or simply not pursuing the gift like the treasure it was meant to be. You silence the message God is trying to speak to you by determining that it is too overwhelming, or that you are too inadequate to ever walk out the healing it was meant to bring, that you will never be the man or woman you think He may want you to be.  Your shame exudes anxiety, keeping the little child in you continually lost and alone, debilitated by the fear that what is set before you isn’t really yours to enjoy, and that the moment you reach for it, it will be yanked from your grasp.  Shame tells you that God has not really been good to you and that He cannot really be trusted to care for your heart.

When you see shame in that light, it suddenly looks like a shoddy front for pride, like a sneaky, deceptive, easily justified avenue for living life on our own terms rather than being surrendered to God.