Devotional: “The Lifter Of My Head”

I have been there.  
That moment of shame.  That place of embarrassment.  It’s not a fun place to be, in that moment of red-faced, head-hanging sadness.  Perhaps it happens when you let words fly that were sharp as razor blades and those blades struck deep into the heart of someone you love…and all you wished that you could do was reel them back or reverse time and stop yourself from such utterances.  Perhaps it happened in the way you shouted at someone in a fit of road rage while driving…and your kids were in the car, and they saw you in a moment of absurd immaturity and hot-headedness.

I have traveled to those destinations, and I would pay anything never to return.
Perhaps you have traveled to these shameful places too.  The real question is, do we admit them to others and ourselves, or do we play it off as if it never happened and hope that the people we care for will also forget?

Then there are other moments when other people have shamed us, other events where we were made to look like fools and our tormentors were spiteful and cruel…and their harsh words dug it’s sharp blades into our very hearts…and now we’re wounded.  We carry around this hurt wherever we go, and we hang our heads in shame because of it.

Dear fellow ponderers, let me encourage you today.
If we sincerely seek to be forgiven, then God will forgive.
If we sincerely seek to be released from our hurt, God will provide the salve and healing.

Psalm 3:3 says, “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”

May God lift your heads today.
May we recognize that God wants for us to lift up our hearts and our heads to Him, and that we no longer have to live with the shame and guilt any longer.  He wants to come to us and to heal us.  He longs to make the wrongs – right and to fellowship with us, while replacing or shame and hurt with victory and joy.  The real question is – are we prepared to allow Him to lift our heads, or will we continue to go it alone all the while making our own feeble attempts at strength?

Prayer:  
Dear Lord, lift my head today.  Thank You for restoring me so that I can have that right relationship with You!  Forgive me for the shame I have caused in my life, and heal me of the hurts others have caused in my heart.  Remind me of Your purposes for my life.  Grant me Your eyes to see others around me, and also remind me of how You see me.  Thank You Lord for your presence with me today.   -Amen.