Since today is my birthday, I thought it would be fitting to talk about birthday suits. So here's what I need you to do. Get naked and go look at
yourself in the mirror. ( I thought that would get your attention). But for
real...get naked and get in front of a full length mirror and take a good look at
yourself. What? Can't bring yourself to do that? Just the thought of it
makes you feel uncomfortable? Yeah, me too. So scratch that idea.
But now that we are thinking
about it, you are probably realizing that you pretty much keep yourself
covered up, not only from the eyes of others, but also from your own
eyes. Sure you get naked every day to take a bath or shower (or at
least I hope you do), but how much time do you spend really looking at
yourself. Maybe a brief glimpse in the mirror as you are jumping off the side of your tub through your bath towel and right into your underclothes. I would dare to guess
that you have a mole on your body somewhere that you have never seen.
So
what's my point you ask (and yes I do have one). Well I believe that
we rarely if ever take a long, examining look at our bodies because
we don't want to face our flaws. The truth is, we wear clothes not
only to hide ourselves from others, but also to hide ourselves from...ourselves. Some of you probably rarely look at yourself in a picture or allow
yourself to even be photographed because you don't want to be confronted
by your own physical imperfections. I can't say that's too unnatural to
feel that way.
But here is the even deeper point I am trying to make (and yeees, I do have one). Most of us don't want
to have to see ourselves spiritually naked either. Having all of our
sins, failures and bad habits laid to bare before our shameful eyes is
too much to take. We don't just hide our sins from others, we hide them from ourselves too. That's why when we catch a glimpse of who we really
are, we quickly throw on a towel of self-denial, or we cover our eyes
with that hand that points out the flaws of others. And to think, it
all started with Adam and Eve. After they disobeyed God, their eyes were opened and they realized there were naked, and
they were ashamed and they scuffled to try cover themselves. And
we've been following their lead ever since.
But
here's the thing. If we want to be freed from our sin, we have to be
forgiven of our sin. And to be forgiven of our sin, we have to confess our
sin. And to confess our sin we have to expose our sin. Not
necessarily to other people, but definitely to God and to ourselves. And
that is about as comfortable of a process as standing in front of one
of those 3-section mirrors buck-naked. I know, I shudder at the thought
too.
Look I want to share two things with you
that I hope will help you cross your valley of shame to make it to the mountain of your deliverance. The first thing is this. Whatever you are
hiding, you are only hiding it from yourself. God already knows. He can
see past your church clothes and your cloak of self righteousness. He's
not shocked by anything about you, and He loves you anyway. The second
thing is this. When Jesus went to the cross for you, He not only took
your sin with Him, but He also took the shame that accompanies your sin.
Remember, before they crucified Jesus, they stripped Him of His clothes.
And He allowed them to do that. Hebrews 12:2 says "Looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God.". Jesus had nothing to hide, yet He got naked for you and me and bore our shame upon the cross to crucify it.
So even if you can't muster of the nerve to get naked and stand before a mirror, at least strive in your life to shed your clothes of pretense and self righteousness so that God can apply His grace to your places of shame. Then you will be able to fully know what the Prophet Isaiah meant when he said "Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of
dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they
shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy." (Isa. 61:7). Then you can be naked and not ashamed.
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