This Week’s Recovery Application Challenge
Be sure to complete TWIRL 016 before continuing this TWRAC activity
Overcoming Guilt and Shame
“When our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts.” (1 John 3:20)
In order grasp the proper perspective of the issue of guilt and shame from God’s perspective, let’s examine the story told by Jesus of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
- What would you say was the attitude and motivation of the son at the beginning of this passage?
- What would you say the son felt guilty about?
- Did the son have reason to feel shame? Explain.
- When the son returned to rational sensibility, what did he come to realize?
- What was the attitude of the father when the son returned home?
- Jesus told this story as representative of God’s love and motivation to show you mercy and restore you into right relationship with Him. What do you believe about God’s love and motivation to restore you into right relationship with Him?
- What have do you done in your life experience that God cannot forgive you for?
- How would you say you are battling feelings of guilt?
- How would you say you are experiencing real shame?
- How would you say that you wrestle with feelings of failure?
- How would you say you have managed these feelings?
- Considering how you have been wounded at various times of your life, which are healed wounds—scars?
- Which wounds would you say are in the process of healing—scabs, but are vulnerable being ripped wide open again?
- How can a relationship with Jesus Christ be the bridge to healed wounds and overcoming guilt, shame, and failure?
- What can you do to build the bridge to right relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
- What can God do to restore you into right relationship with Him, like the Father did for the prodigal son?
- You first… your move… what will you do right now?
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