For the past 25 years, Beth Moore has been challenging and encouraging people in the body of Christ through Bible studies, books, speaking and radio/television programming.
As a gifted communicator with godly confidence, she founded Living Proof Ministries in 1994 with a dedication to Biblical literacy and a commitment to guide believers to love and live on God’s Word. Since then, God has used her to help countless people overcome strongholds that hinder their relationships with Christ.
But, that hasn’t always been her story.
Before she was living a victorious life in Christ, she felt insecure and shameful over her past. Although she was raised in the church by loving parents, she suffered early childhood victimization by a trusted person. As she grew up, this manifested itself into an insecure young woman who made sinful decisions.
“Had I not determined to believe God over how I felt about my own past and my own failure, I promise you that I never would have never written Bible studies,” says Moore. “I would have completely disconnected from the body of Christ over shame.”
Through a series of events in her early thirties, Moore was forced to confront who she believed she was and who she truly was as a disciple of Christ.
“There was a definitive season when God began to ask me over and over again in His word, ‘Will you believe Me about yourself, or will you just disintegrate over the shame of your past?’ This was a very deliberate and important part of my relationship with Him.”
Over her years of seeing other people struggle with the same guilt and shame, God impressed it upon her heart to deliver a message of security. In fact, she has recently released a book titled So Long, Insecurity. “I knew we are not living out of the kind of mind-set and wholeness of heart Christ came to give us. And, I’ve learned after 25 years in discipleship ministry and over 50 years of personal experience that people are told volumes about what hey need to do. They are desperate to know how.”
She continues, “God has given us back our dignity, and He is blatant about it by giving us His Son. The physician came for the sick! He came to seek and save the lost.”
Moore says that some of the widespread shame is rooted not only in concern about God’s acceptance, but in the fear of being unaccepted by others. “We’re afraid that no one else would accept us. I was afraid for people to know what I had been through and what I had experienced.”
She wants to see the church set free from the insecurity of guilt and shame because it keeps us from living the spiritually abundant life God has planned for us. “This insecurity undermines our calling to go places. We all have been called to ‘bear much fruit.’ It hinders our effectiveness. It hinders our relationships – with God and other people.”
She recalls the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. “When I read this passage in the Bible, it struck me how Jesus told some others to remove Lazarus’ grave clothes,” she remembers. “So many of us walk around in our ‘grave clothes,’ even after we’ve been given life. I want to see other people change out of their ‘grave clothes,’ just like I did.”
