Failure, Shame, and Disgrace…Oh My!

 Have you ever felt like a failure or felt a sense of shame and disgrace?  I know I have.  If I were a betting gal I’d bet that you have too.  Satan LOVES to fill our hearts with shame, failure, and disgrace.  Why?  Because he wants to fill us with so much despair that we give up.  Give up on what?  On the calling and destiny that God has for us in our marriages, families, spheres of influence, ministry, health, etc. 

Recently I was wrestling with my own sense of failure and disgrace and the Lord took me too Isaiah 54.  Here’s what God says about His people who have suffered and felt destitute like the barren woman who can have no children.  Watch this in v. 2-3, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.  For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” 

Feel like a failure?  Ever felt like that destitute, barren woman?  I have, not only physically but spiritual and emotionally.  YET, God says to us stretch out your tent.  Aka, DON’T GIVE UP!  In fact, we are called to expand and be strengthened.  What calling has God placed on your life, what dream in your heart?  There’s comes a time when we need to take a risk and stretch out our tent.    

As we walk in humble obedience before the Lord, in His gracious timing He will restore us and take our disgrace.  Often times God allows us to experience failure, shame, and disgrace in order to grow us into the person He desires us to be.  He is preparing us for our destiny, stripping us of ourselves to fill us with more of His Son.  So, Beloved, you keep pressing on because God is working in you to build perseverance, faith, and ultimately the character of Jesus. 

I often wonder how much shame Moses, David, Hannah, Mary, Joseph, Paul, and Peter felt.  Yet, God used them in some pretty powerful ways! 

I'm Hungry

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”  Is. 55:2

With pregnancy comes many symptoms that go beyond your control and one of those is hunger.  For those of you who have been pregnant or married to a pregnant woman you can sympathize with me when I say there are moments were I am so hungry I’d pay $20 for a piece of fruit or quietly but secretively take a bite of yours.  J 

The truth is, we get hungry spiritually too.  Sometimes we get so hungry we start grabbing for the wrong things, things that won’t satisfy.  You know, in those moments when you’re longing for love, purpose, and a sense of control?  Your ‘food’ of choice could be busyness, self-pity, or some type of hobby, etc.  If you don’t know ask God to show you, He will.  God tells us in His Word to come to Him.  Here’s the awesome reality; coming to Him for our true satisfaction is free and offered to us because He so full of grace and love for His children.  There’s something so marvelous and satisfying about the Word of God.  In those moments when my heart is hungry and I open the Word it’s like getting that pear when I’m hit with a wave of pregnancy hunger.  It’s relief, it’s nourishment, and it gives peace like nothing else and trust me it’s way better than a pear!  Yep, it’s that powerful.  It’s God’s Word after all. 

So the question remains, are you feasting on the Word of God?  Are you delighting in the richest of fare?  It’s time to stop trying to fill those longings with anything else, God’s Word tells us it won’t satisfy and that my friends is the truth. His Word has pulled me out of so many pits in my life and I know it can yours!