Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25
Have you ever been is a situation where you wished you could just hide? That feeling of having your shortcomings totally exposed is not a comfortable one. Being totally naked is being totally exposed. When Adam and Eve were naked before the fall, they were exposed and entirely comfortable. Why wouldn’t they be comfortable? They didn’t know the stain of sin and therefore did not know any shame.
A man’s feeling of shame is the result of inadequacies being exposed--usually the exposure of his sin. When your inadequacies are exposed to others, don’t you have some sort of negative feelings? The natural response to an experience of shame is to attempt to cover up the inadequacies in some way--to hide.
The intent of the enemy is to put you into a position where you feel as though you are totally inadequate and need to hide. He wants you to withdraw because that usually hides your strengths as well as your flaws. He wants you to experience the shame so you cannot accomplish what you were created to accomplish or be what you were created to be.
When Jesus went to the cross as an essentially naked man with tremendous scars, wounds, and what would have incited shame in anyone else, he did it so you would not be debilitated by shame. He did it so you could be covered by His righteousness and be empowered to complete what He designed you to complete. We are totally exposed to God and do not need to be debilitated by shame because Jesus took that shame upon Himself so we could be empowered through forgiveness.
What shame do you carry with you? What skeletons do you not want to be exposed to the world? Carry that to the feet of Jesus and ask Him to allow you to know the assurance of His forgiveness. Know His forgiveness and live with confidence in who He made you to be.