Letting Go of Shame
by Pringle Franklin
Just yesterday, a stranger in the park asked me if I smoked cigarettes. When I told her no, she pressed harder. Had I ever smoked? No. Ever tried it? No.
She congratulated me. Then she shook her head, looking sadly at the smoldering cigarette between her yellowed fingers. She hated her own addiction. She wanted to quit.
Her plight reminded me of a story. A friend from church had struggled with a decades-long addiction to cigarettes. One Father’s Day, in memory of her departed daddy, she decided to quit. She prayed honestly and asked God for help. My friend had tried and failed to stop several times before, so she expected her latest effort to be a grueling struggle. Then something unusual happened.
After giving this situation over to God in prayer, my friend lost her taste for smoking. Her desire for cigarettes simply vanished, and now she has gone 10 years without a puff.
God is still in the miracle business, so I offered to pray with the stranger about this, and she readily agreed. I sat beside her on a park bench, and she quickly snuffed out her cigarette. As we prayed, I claimed that she had the power through the blood of Jesus to break her addiction. She could walk away from cigarettes forever. If the cigarettes were a soothing device used to cope with a deeper issue, the Lord would reach into the crevices of her psyche to apply his healing oil. She could escape, if she dared.
Like the stranger in the park, we all have burdens we yearn to lay down. Sometimes others have strapped baggage on us through mistreatment, harmful words, or by prodding us into 
poor lifestyle choices. Sometimes we have heaped burdens on ourselves, staggering under duffle bags of regret, steamer trunks of shame, or basket loads of guilt. With so much to carry, we can reach a breaking point.
Just in time, our Lord arrives on the scene and says, “Shalom.” Take a moment and catch your breath. Relax and calm down.
He invites us to come and sit, to rest against his side while we cry. If we can allow him to love us, in all of our sniveling unloveliness, then we can begin to glimpse how much value we have in his eyes. Through his unexpected tenderness, we can learn to love ourselves.
You are loved, no matter what you have done. You are completely known and completely accepted, because Jesus Christ has already paid the price for your sin. Once we embrace this liberating fact, we can break free from the bondage of shame, regret, and bitterness.
We can find forgiveness — and the strength to offer forgiveness. We can live a more creative and God-centered life by bringing our broken pieces and laying them at the foot of the cross. We can walk forward with God without glancing back.
“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12
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4 Comments
We are called to believe and receive. amen.
Pringle, the story about about letting go of shame brought this scripture to mind. It is strengthening and encouraging any time we are battling thoughts of our unworthiness. Zephaniah 3: 17 – 19: “The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.”
Jill — thank you for sharing your story of how the Lord delivered you from cigarettes. It seems so simple that it is hard to grasp but, as you say, if we do not ask, we will not receive. I am thankful to know of your freedom in this way. Thanks for encouraging others by sharing. We all have various things that try to rule us, and we need to let the Lord be our only master.
Many years ago, when I was still a part time smoker, Sheryl O’Neal asked me a simple question – have you ever given it to God? I had not and, when I did, I immediately lost my taste for cigarettes. She was such an inspiration to me and I have used this very tactic with many friends who continued to smoke. Those who tried asking Him to take it from them have been successful!