Shame

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day four)

Zacharias and Elizabeth lived righteous lives, but they still wrestled with the realities of a broken world. Their inability to bear children was a point of hurt and shame in their lives, one they had dealt with for a long time. When the Lord confronts Zacharias in the temple, he gives him a promise that ministers to his deepest wound. This passage is meant to remind us of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. Throughout our lineage of ancestors in the Kingdom of God, the Lord meets people in their hurt and shame and brings beauty out of that place. He not only gives Zacharias and Elizabeth a child, but he uses that child to prepare the way of the Lord and advance the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The Lord continues to work in this way today. He ministers to our hurt and shame in a variety of ways, but when we submit those things to the Lord, he is willing to not only heal us in that area, but use it to advance the Kingdom.