When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:4).
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:10)
Many of us had ran away from our ministry, family, friends, goals and dreams. Its easier to run away from our failures and shame than facing it.
I've walked away from toxic friendships, my ministry, and dreams. For many years, I was a slave of my shame. When God called me to pastor I was still a shame of my past. I believed every negative word instead of God's word. Later, when I was ordained as a Prophet, I was still feeling guilt. My Spirit was crushed. I saw how many underestimated my calling. I saw many trying to justify themselves by pointing out my past. They always found ways to discouraged me. They believed more in those from outside than myself. Since, elementry school I never fit in any group because I was never good enough for them. I ran away from lies of the enemy until I said "Lord here I am". Thats when it hit me and I decided to face my shame and failures.
I understood that I was ugly but still beautiful. I learned that I can not change my past but I can change my future and still be used by God. We create a mess in our shame, trying to throw off the weight of our sins. We walked away and hid accusing others trying to justify our shame to other people. We don't want to take responsibility. But we no longer naked. We don't need to hide our shame because God will cover our shame as he did with Adam and Eve. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them ( Genesis 3:21).
I walked away from open doors of opportunities because a closed door from the past failure still resounded in my ears rather than, working through the rough patch to keep it strong. We run away from things that God has given us instead of facing it. An author wrote a book "When you don't like your story "by Lysa Terkeurst. Moises, had failed in many areas and even running away after killing the Egyptian. Moisés was raised in the wrong family. He was feeling shame for not only killing, but being raised as an Egyptian instead of his real Hebrew family. God wasn't finished with Moises and He is not finished with you. "Unique for being broken".
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weaknesses of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25). God is calling you to let your failure, move forward in all he has for you to do and live boldly. Many people enjoy listening and telling stories but they feel a shame to testify their own real story. Unfortunately, many use that as an excuse to maintain their self isolated from society and God.
Your story is not to be a shame, your past doesn't define you. If you walked away from your sinful nature you are now new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
God repairs us for his glory. We are his masterpiece. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. (Jeremiah 18:6 NIV).
Don't hide your shame neither your scars. God will always cloth us. God always has clay in the potter. Come as you are. Come to God in repentance instead of shame. God can work his glory and victory over your shame.
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
~Pastor Madeline Alvarez, RN 🦋