The Shame/Fear/Control Stronghold

Shame is the lie that we are uniquely & fatally flawed. Uniquely flawed – no one else is as bad as me. I'm the only one who feels this way, the only one who is this bad. Fatally flawed – I'm unfixable, I can't get healed from this, so the best I can do is hide it so no one else knows.

So we live in fear that someone else will find out, that our shame will be exposed. So we control our environment – our lives and the people around us – to prevent anyone from finding out. Sometimes we turn into people pleasers, agreeing with the group or person we're with at the time to be accepted. Sometimes we turn into perfectionist performers, trying desperately to appear good enough to hide that we're not. Sometimes we turn completely immoral – better to let the world see the shame I want to show them rather then the shame I'm trying to hide: “You won't see that if I show you this.”

The shame/fear/control stronghold is one of the most effective strategies the enemy has to keep Christians from living out who they really are. If the enemy can't defeat your salvation, he at minimum wants to neutralize your giftings and steal your destiny. Because you living out who you really are, who God's called you to be, literally scares the Heaven out of him.

We all have it, to one degree or another. Stay tuned – Wednesday we'll talk about how to defeat it.