Genesis 2:3 Thus God blessed day seven and made it special-an open time for pause and restoration…
Genesis 2:25 In those days the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. (The Voice.)
Naked and Unashamed
We have all heard that there are different seasons in life. Many ministers even take it a step further to include the idea that there are different seasons in our spiritual growth. We go through seasons where we hear the voice of God loudly, clearly, and often. There are other times where it’s as though the Lord couldn’t be any farther away.
I woke up one Saturday morning a few months ago and that familiar feeling of distance seemed to be looming between Abba and me. I went out to my back porch and proceeded to have my devotions. I was reading in Genesis 2 that day, and two verses in particular caught my attention. Sometimes, words in Scripture seem to jump off the page. This day, however, they drew my attention more subtly. It felt more like the glowing light of the oven clock as you enter the dark kitchen in the middle of the night. The brightness of the words wasn’t overwhelming, but it was there nonetheless.
At first glance, these two verses appeared to have nothing to do with one another, and even more perplexing were the particular words that drew my attention…an open time for pause and restoration and naked but not ashamed. I couldn’t understand what the Lord was trying to speak, but I also couldn’t go on reading. So, I did what I knew to do: I dug deeper and began looking at the meaning of the words that were now consuming my mind.
To be open is to be freely available in schedule, time, heart, and mind. Restoration is to renew the mind, body, and soul. To be naked is to be undisguised.
As I sat meditating on these words from Scripture and their definitions, I began to understand. When I make myself available to the Lord, He renews my mind, body, and soul so that I am undisguised and able to be the person He created me to be. It is easy to allow the hectic pace of life to creep in to the point that our very identity is lost. We become only a fraction of who He intended because we are disguising ourselves with Christian virtues that we often don’t feel. Rather than coming to the Lord and admitting our weariness, loneliness, anger, or pain, we come praying the prayer we think He wants to hear. Hoping that if we say all the right words and quote all the proper Scriptures, He will alleviate our turmoil. We come wearing our virtues as Adam and Eve wore their fig leaves. We come trying to earn the grace He has already freely given.
Friend, Yahweh wants us to bring our naked selves, our bruised, battered, weary, angry, (insert your own adjective) selves and just tell Him where we are. God wants to hear our heart. He wants to know our thoughts, no matter how frightening, emotional, or overwhelming they may seem. God wants us to be vulnerable and transparent with Him.
Just as a hidden wound cannot heal, a hidden heart will not change. When we take off the fig leaves, we unlock the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Vulnerability with the Father opens a realm of His presence that allows a deep inner work to begin. This work molds us into the person He always intended us to be. Our wounds begin to heal and suddenly, hope and peace emerge.
I know it sounds awfully strange, but Abba wants us to take off the fig leaves. Open yourself to the Father. Ask Him, what fig leaves am I using to hide the nakedness of my soul? Listen for His truth about what you feel and allow His presence to do a work within.
Written by Liz Cox