I will learn to accept, and even enjoy, God’s humiliating me. I must learn that God disciplines me by embarrassing me. He did that with Simon Peter. “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23, italics added). If I do not shame myself, that is, if I do not sense my need to the point where I feel shame, God will do it for me. To feel shame is really to judge myself; and Paul says if I do not judge myself, God will have to do it for me (1 Corinthians 11:31–32).
To be ashamed before God is painful; to be put to shame by God is more painful; but the worst pain is to be put to shame by the world. God wants to hurt me to correct me, so the world will never be able to get a lick at me. Now I know what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 7:8–10 about godly sorrow working repentance.
God put Jesus to shame and grief (Isaiah 53:10), but not for Himself; it was for me. There was nothing in Jesus that shame could improve. His shame was my shame, in order that I might improve. The shame of the cross is constantly being worked out in me daily. If I accept it, then I enjoy Isaiah’s word, “He who believes … [on Him] … will not be ashamed” (28:16, Amp.).
It does me good to wear sackcloth occasionally. I need to sit in the ash pile. God has no spoiled children, and He applies the rod as often as I need it to learn. If He shames me, it is because He loves me. He decrees that good will come of me, that His image will be formed in me. To that end, He shames me into sonship, but only that His eternal glory may radiate from me, for what son is there who is not disciplined by his father (Hebrews 12:7)? God is treating me as a son (v. 6). Hallelujah for the rod!
“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does notdiscipline?” (Hebrews 12:7).
Daily with the King 