Beauty in Transparency

You know that deep feeling of being seen and loved when a friend knows exactly what is wrong before you even have to explain anything to them? It's like they can read your mind and know exactly what you need at the perfect time. In an instant you can go from feelings of panic or pain to feelings of comfort and safety. It changes things and you begin to slowly unravel your thoughts and fears to them as you process. You can just be exactly where you are and they love you anyway. That is what it feels like when you let yourself be fully exposed before God.
 
God already knows every thought and feeling you are experiencing, you can’t hide them from Him. However, He isn’t a dictator who simply takes things, He wants to be invited in. He wants to be given the space to give you direction and not just bark orders at you. He wants you to be fully transparent before Him and to know that He will listen intently like it’s the first time He is becoming aware of these things. As you open up, He will provide what you need. Whether it be correction, affection, healing, hope, etc. He will answer your calls. He is the safest meeting place. You don’t need to fear that He will be angry, if you mess up He will gently show you where to correct. Discipline can be so soft and comforting. He knows exactly what you need, and no matter where you are He will make a way to give you whatever that may be.

We were always meant to thrive this way. There is a reason Adam and Eve felt no shame when they were completely naked in the Garden, being hidden was never God’s design. When sin entered the world, God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden as protection for them so that they would be able to come back to Him, if they had stayed they would risk being separated from Him forever if they were to eat from the Tree of life. In Genesis 3:21 we see God sacrificed an animal for the first time in order to help them cope with the consequences of their sin; He made clothing for them out of the animal skins so they would no longer be naked. Even after we directly mess up, if we come before God and are honest with Him, He will provide the means to help us cope and the means to move forward in a way that benefits us simply because that is how much he loves us.
 
True intimacy and exposure is coming before God, even when you don’t feel like it, and laying it all on the table. You can express your anguish and your sorrow like David did throughout the Psalms during the period of his life He was on the run in the wilderness; you can sit before your father like Jesus when He would go away from the disciples to be alone with God; you can reach out in faith for healing like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ robe did; you can sing your praises like countless have done in moments of victory and in moments of despair; you can ask for forgiveness like Joseph’s brothers did when they came before Him in Egypt after selling him into slavery many years before;  you can ask for correction like the disciples often did and like the early church learned they frequently needed through the many letters of Paul. Whatever place you may be in, you can come and lay it all out there knowing that God sees you as His beloved and he sees absolutely no flaw in you (Song of Songs 4:7).
 
He longs to be with you. He longs to be let in. He longs to speak to you, to see you, to truly know you. To do that all you have to do is come before Him in complete honesty; completely naked and unashamed as you seek to live for Him. He knows exactly what you need, and even if it is the hardest conversation you think you will ever have, He will know exactly what to say, exactly what to give you, exactly how to hold you before you even start letting the words flow from your mouth. So cast off your fear, cast off your shame, cast off your bitterness or anger and walk boldly before the throne of grace and simply sit down at the feet of your Father, He will take it from there. You will realize the love He has for you and the beauty and transformation that will come when you drop the mask you have so tiredly been holding up.

Author | Tori Kramer