Philippians 1:20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. NIV

Shame is a powerful emotion. Shame is what we feel when we know that we have dishonored ourselves or others and have caused embarrassment because that failure is known to others.

In this passage, Paul expresses his desire and goal to avoid embarrassing the Lord through any dishonoring behaviors or attitudes. When I realized that he was in prison facing possible death for his faith, his stated goal becomes even more courageous to me. It is hard enough not to bring embarrassment to God when things are going relatively well.

When I act like a spoiled customer because I did not get fast enough or good enough service, I bring shame to the Kingdom of God. How pathetic is that? Paul faces death and keeps the honor of God in mind, I have to wait a couple of extra minutes for my fast food and I complain and whine that I am being persecuted!

Perhaps the idea here is to keep an eternal perspective no matter what my circumstances are like. What will bring God positive attention instead of people looking at me and thinking “If that is what following God does to people’s attitudes then I don’t want to follow God.”

Father, please help me to live this passage of scripture out daily so that I may bring you honor and respect.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 5:00 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.