12/11/2017
Do you attempt to hide who you are from God by covering yourself in some fashion? Do you pretend to be spiritually in control when in fact you are anything but? Are your sins hidden within you where you feel they are safe from God’s eyes? Who do you fool, but yourself? Lay your iniquities before you and seek God’s help in dealing with them, because He has known them all along... even in the recesses of your heart.
“Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart. Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.”
Proverbs 26:23-26 ESV
There is no hiding place from the Father. He sees through you like a clear glass, and no false reflection can conceal you behind a mirror of lies. You are an open book, and every page is at His command. So do not deceive yourself... speak frankly to our Father.
“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Numbers 32:23 ESV
Yet, from the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, we have sought to hide ourselves both physically and spiritually. Adam and Eve hid themselves and their nakedness from God by hiding among the trees, and then they blamed their disobedience on another; Adam blamed Eve, and she in turn blamed the serpent.
“And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"”
Genesis 3:10-11 ESV
Then God, knowing their shame, made clothes for them and they were clothed for the first time. God didn’t do this for himself, but because He sensed their shame and dis-ease at being revealed to Him in their nakedness. Don’t you find it interesting that they could stand naked before one another comfortably, but not before God? They had separated themselves, and now stood apart from Him.
“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Genesis 3:21 ESV
So to this day we put on the clothes that God provided to cover our shame, but despite our garments, God still sees us naked, and that is how we should pray. We should pray as though we were naked before Him... no secrets or hidden sins, but with all of our bare iniquities laid shamefully and remorsefully before Him. Is this how you pray? How about being physically bare? Have you ever prayed in the shower? How did it make you feel to acknowledge His presence as you stood there naked? Can we return to the innocence of Eden?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for clothing me to hide my nakedness because it shows you care about my feelings and shame. I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who has made it possible for me to return spiritually to Eden and lay my sins down at your feet. Merciful Father, I thank you for the forgiveness you have made possible, and the grace that allows me to stand before you unclothed, with all expectation of being seen as pure.
Rich Forbes