Not Ashamed

Ashamed – feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace; feeling inferior or unworthy; restrained by anticipation of shame

Shame – a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety; dishonor, disgrace; something that brings strong regret, censure, or reproach

Because of our innate sense of “coming short,” all of humanity from time to time feels this emotion of shame, but this is not the way God created us in the beginning!

Genesis 2:25  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

In the Old Testament, those who wanted to serve God are constantly seen crying out to Him, “Let me not be ashamed!”  They are praying, “God, lift me above my sinful state!”

Psalm 25:1-2  ¹Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. ²O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Psalm 25:19-20  ¹⁹Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.  ²⁰O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Psalm 31:16-17  ¹⁶Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake. ¹⁷Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

The people of God knew that there was only one way to remove this sense of shame before God, and that was by keeping all of His commandments!  But they just couldn’t do it!

Psalm 119:4-6  ⁴Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. ⁵O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! ⁶Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

Psalm 119:80  Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.

Psalm 119:116-117  ¹¹⁶Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. ¹¹⁷Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

But in the New Testament, it is entirely different!  We are not saved through our own efforts; we do not have to deal with the guilt problem on our own!  The Holy Ghost in us helps us to live victoriously in every situation of life!

Romans 5:3-5  ³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; ⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope: ⁵And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Romans 10:11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Our sense of shame is still only removed by keeping the commandments of God, but now we can have internal power through the Holy Ghost to keep His laws!

2 Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

John 4:23-24  ²³But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  ²⁴God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The power is in Jesus, who lives through us to keep His commands!

2 Timothy 1:12-14  ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.  ¹³Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

When we are not ashamed of God (in our living, in our trials, in our prayer, in our worship) then He will not be ashamed of us!

Hebrews 2:10-12  ¹⁰For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ¹¹For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹²Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.

Hebrews 11:14-16  ¹⁴For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. ¹⁵And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. ¹⁶But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

The only way you can stand before God unashamed – both now and in eternity – is to have a living relationship with Him!

1 John 2:28  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.