​What should I do when I feel ashamed?

Fix your eyes on Jesus!

Speak to your own soul

• Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5

          Why are you depressed, O my soul?  Why are you upset?  Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.

Tell shame, “Shame, you are worthless in comparison to the joy that is set before me in Jesus!”

• Hebrews 12:2-3

          Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up.


Shame your shame by fixing your eyes on that joy in Him!

The gospel preaches to you of God’s mercy towards the unclean, the sinners, the ashamed, the outsiders – in Christ we are all together clean and pure, welcomed by God, and we belong to Him as children in whom His soul delights and in whom He will defend!

• 1 Peter 2:9-10

          But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

• Hebrews 10:19-22

          Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

Stop comparing yourself with others!

• Galatians 3:22,28

          But the scripture imprisoned everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – to those who believe…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• We are ALL unworthy AND we are ALL equally loved and delighted in, so throw your comparisons out the door of your heart

Remember that Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother (or sister!)

• Hebrews 2:10-13

          For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you." Again he says, "I will be confident in him," and again, "Here I am, with the children God has given me."

The gospel frees you from needing anyone’s approval but God’s, and He approves of you because of Jesus

• Psalm 118:6

          The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?

• 1 Corinthians 6:11

          Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The gospel sets you upon a path through the fields of suffering to the city of joy – and it is WORTH IT

• Philippians 3:8-11

          More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung!  – that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ's faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ's faithfulness.  My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.





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