God is not ashamed of you.
King David writes in the Psalms, “By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.” (Psalm 41:11–12, ESV)
God delights in you. In other words, he has great favor towards you. His desire is to set you in his presence forever. You bring God joy.
God is not ashamed of you.
I know you don’t believe me.
- Your only consistency is being inconsistent
- You are still out of work
- Your husband never touches you
- You battle with pornography
- The phone never rings
- You drink too much
- You have never met your father
- You have been divorced
- You hurt everyone who gets close to you
- You have no money
- The routine of life has stolen your drive
- Everything is a struggle
There are thousands of reasons why you may not believe me. The things we have done and the things done to us have an ability to produce in us an overwhelming feeling of shame. This shame cause us to hide our face from God. However, the God I know pursues us and desires to exchange our shame for his steadfast love.
God is not ashamed of you.
Don’t believe me still? Look at what the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8–10, ESV)
My wife and I have four children. Like many families, from early on we established a bedtime routine for our kids. They get their pajamas on, brush their teeth, we read stories they choose and a passage of Scripture. We pray and then they bounce off to their beds.
Almost every night I poke my head into my daughters room and ask her this one simple question, “Where is dad’s princess?” Sometimes her eyes light up and at other times they roll. As she gets older, I get more rolls! Regardless, I continue to ask the question and she faithfully smiles and points to herself. The reason I continually ask this question is because I never want her to forget who she is in her father’s eyes.
Regardless of the shame you feel for yourself, God is not ashamed of you.
My prayer for you as you read this is that you would never forget who you are in God’s eyes, your perfect father. God is not ashamed of you. He loves you. He cares for you. Our relationship with God is not built on our faltering love for Him, but on his steadfast love for us. Therefore, we can turn to him. We can run to him and he will welcome us because we bring him joy.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6–7, ESV)
God is not ashamed of you.