Secrets. The very word evokes mystery, questions, and suspense. We are all eager to know everyone else’s secrets, but rarely want anyone to know ours. Why is that? I think it’s because most secrets are rooted in shame. If shame was not attached to our secrets, we would have no problem saying them out loud. But instead, we hide them, bury them, cover them up. We stuff them down so deep that not only do we not want others to know them, we don’t even want to think about them ourselves. Being a secret keeper can be a burdensome thing. The problem is that secrets never get lighter or easier to carry. They only grow heavier as time goes on.

What a clever strategy of the enemy. And I think one of the most used tools in his arsenal.  He takes great pleasure in wagging his pointy finger in our faces saying, “Shame on you!”  because he knows that when we become clothed in shame, it literally keeps us from Living Life Out Loud!  You see, shame silences our voices by making us feel guilty, ugly, insecure, inadequate, and unworthy.  And if we have no voice, we have no testimony. If we have no testimony, we have no victory (Rev. 12:11).

Whether our wounds are self-inflicted, or the result of trauma done by someone else…  they need air in order to breathe, in order to heal.  We cannot receive healing from something that we don’t or won’t acknowledge. When we bottle things up inside, we allow the poison of shame to continually seep toxins into our mind, body, and spirit.

Psalm 32:3 (MSG) “When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans.”

Psalm 39:2 (GW) “I remained totally speechless. I kept silent, although it did me no good. While I was deep in thought, my pain grew worse.”

I am confident that God’s plan is not for us to suffer alone. He created us to share our burdens with one another.

Numbers 11:17 (NIV) “…I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

Galatians 6:2 (NIV) “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

The enemy understands this and the power of confession. He knows that when we release those secrets from within (whether they be wrongs we’ve done or wrongs that were done to us), they lose their hold on us. It’s as if shame has us in a choke-hold, but when we speak out in spite of the fear, in spite of the shame, it instantly loses its grip and its power over us.

James 5:16 (TLB) “Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results.”

My prayer for you is that you are done living in shame, that you quit giving the enemy permission to control you through fear and intimidation.  Please find someone to share your burdens with (after you share them with Jesus, of course). Someone that you can trust your deepest and darkest secrets to without fear of judgement. Keep in mind, the purpose is not to “dwell and tell or to tell and keep dwelling” (stole that from my pastor’s sermon on Sunday 😊). The purpose is to be real and heal.

The result is freedom and immediate relief… and then wonder at why we held onto the secret and the shame for so long.

Friends, isn’t it finally time to silence the shame and stop allowing the shame to silence you?