This is Day 3 of a five-day study on overcoming the shame of failure so you can put the past behind you. Missed a day? No problem! Click on the menu below to jump to any day of the devotional.
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Overcome failure and put the past behind you by working through the five stages of recovery: Denial/Ducking, Shame, Repentance, Grief and Recovery. Let’s dive into day 3, where we explore restoring our relationship with God through repentance.
Day 3
Stage: Repentance
Read: Psalm 51
Shame’s job is to lead you to repentance.
Repentance means to agree with God that He is right. You turn your back on sin, change direction, and head straight toward your Father.
- That’s your side of the equation. Now it’s God’s turn: forgiveness.
We don’t have to wonder if God will keep up His end of the bargain, because He promises:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 NKJV
- “Faithfulness” means He can be relied upon to show up every time.
- “Just” means that God is administering justice to your sin: Jesus already paid for it and that payment is being liberally applied as satisfaction of your unrighteousness.
God loves you, and He wants the relationship restored even more than you do. He waits for you to come to Him with humility and vulnerability, trusting in Him to restore you. Slate: Clean. Record: Erased. Debt: Cancelled.
David brought his only offerings: humility and vulnerability.
For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart –
These, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51: 16-17 NKJV
The broken spirit that God treasures is not a spirit wallowing in depression and without hope. That is how the world despairs, and it leads only to death.
The humbled spirit we lift up to God has shattered its self-denial, its pride, its self-reliance and offered itself back to its maker to be mended.
This is a spirit prepared for greatness.
Jesus said:
“And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Matthew 21:44
Jesus, Matthew 21:44 NKJV
What good is a broken pot? Its shards cannot hold water. Its dusty remnants only refuse to be swept away.
Except the potter knows better. The potter knows the value of broken things when he crushes the broken shards, mixes them into new clay, and shapes a new pot. The new vessel is stronger because of the broken pieces. You are stronger, too.
God won’t waste your brokenness. He will make you into a stronger vessel.
Brokenness is God’s beautiful. Beautiful because soon you will look more like Jesus.
When David was broken, he gave that contrite heart to God and waited on Him.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be white than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
Psalm 51:7-9 NKJV
Repentance is an attitude adjustment.
We’ve given up our covetousness for our own way.
We’ve given up our unteachable spirit and said, “Thy will be done.”
We’ve given up relying on ourselves because His strength is made perfect in weakness.
It was never you anyway. It was always God. Now your heart knows it, too.
Reflection Questions
- How has your choice humbled you? What has God taught you in the aftermath of your past failure? How has it brought you closer to Him?