In HOPE

 

 

 

  In HOPE 10.1

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David Timms  

 

 

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 Prayer for Today

Father, please strengthen me to release the shame that lies in my past and the fear that lurks in my future. Help me to live fully in this present moment, engulfed in Your love, assured of it, and anchored in it. Amen.

 Hope Happenings

This past Friday, Dr. John Derry, President of Hope International University announced that over the next 15 months the University will restructure into multiple colleges. For example, a College of Ministry & Biblical Studies, College of Business & Management, and College of Education. Among other benefits, these changes will also allow us to make strategic and creative changes to our curriculum that will keep us on the cutting edge of educational effectiveness.

Other Writing

David Timms, Living the Lord's Prayer (Bethany House, 2008) … Now available in Paperback (January 2010)

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David Timms, Sacred Waiting: Waiting on God in a World that Waits for Nothing (Bethany House, 2009)

 

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“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear."
~ 1 John 4:18

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Fear & Shame

“There’s no doubt about it,” he said.

Dr. Ken Wadum works with Christian leaders around the United States and the world—counseling and teaching. I asked him—based on his many years of experience and observation as a clinical psychologist—what are the most common issues that afflict us? He barely paused in his response: fear and shame.

Often we fear failure, fear loss of approval, fear isolation, fear confrontation, fear being “caught,” fear everything imaginable. And then when we fall or fail we carry shame deeply within ourselves. If we could conquer fear and shame, we’d rise from much of the mire in which we find ourselves.

The challenge for many of us is that the journey from the head to the heart—from what we know to what we can feel—must pass through our frailty and woundedness. In that short distance between the head and the heart lies our brokenness. And it stymies our wholeness.

The process of healing requires either shrinking our woundedness or poking holes in it, so that the truth can dart through and perhaps pierce our hearts. Unless we identify the fear and shame, it may victimize us for a lifetime. Fear and shame become the wrist and leg irons of our lives.

None of this changes easily or quickly unless the Holy Spirit sovereignly smashes the strongholds.

For most of us it’s a gradual process of the truth setting us free; the truth that we are so deeply loved by the Father and so utterly secure in His love that we have nothing to fear; the truth that the Father’s forgiveness is so complete, so whole, and so eternal, that shame cannot stick.

Fear and shame, so often used among us and by us to coerce people into conformity, are too easily manipulated by the devil to destroy us. Yes, repentance surely springs from some degree of shame and regret. And the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But when our fear and shame wound us rather than motivate us to change, they are the tools of the devil.

Perhaps some of us need to pause right now and denounce the power we have inadvertently given to fear and shame in our lives. The Father’s perfect love casts out all fear. The Father’s grace surpasses our disgrace.  Let’s choose to live in that love and grace.

In HOPE –

David

 

 

 

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You can find back issues of "In HOPE" (2005-2009) at http://www.hiu.edu/inhope/ .

David Timms serves in the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. "In HOPE", however, is not an official publication of the University and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Administrators or Board. "In HOPE" has been a regular e-publication since January, 2001.