“Who told you that you were naked?” — Genesis 3:11

It’s a haunting question. God’s voice, echoing through Eden, cuts through the silence after Adam and Eve’s fall. A moment before, they were walking with Him, unashamed. Then a bite, a lie, a hiding and suddenly, shame slithers in.(pun definitely intended)

That question wasn’t just for Adam and Eve. It’s for us too. ‘Who told you that you’re too broken to be loved?’ That your story is too stained to be redeemed? That nothing good can come out of your father’s house? That your past disqualifies you from purpose? Shame always starts with a lie and it thrives in silence.

Like Adam and Eve, we reach for fig leaves. Not the literal kind, but the masks we wear: that curated Instagram feed, the polished Sunday smile, the perfectionism and the life-of-the-party’ personality we hide behind. We camouflage our pain with performance, hoping no one will notice the cracks.

But here’s the ugly truth: shame doesn’t just make us hide from others it convinces us to hide from God. And yet, He still comes looking for us in the garden. Every time. He asks, not because He doesn’t know where we are, but because He wants us to know He’s still pursuing us.

Shame is a thief. It robs us of joy, intimacy, and peace. It isolates. It convinces us we’re the only ones. That if people really knew, they would recoil. That if God really saw, He would walk away.
In case you didn’t know, Jesus already knows. And He’s the One who never walks away.

We’ve all got chapters that we would rather skip, especially those written in the ink of youthful recklessness, heartbreak, rebellion, or ignorance. Some of us are still dragging around regret like it’s a cross we were meant to carry. Remember, Jesus already carried that cross for you.

The cross is not a decoration or a symbol for the squeaky clean. It’s an invitation for the messy, the tired, the ashamed. It’s the place where guilt breathes its last… and grace finds its voice.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). This is not a hopeful suggestion, it’s a promise. And God doesn’t break His promises.

Even more, 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that, ‘no temptation has overtaken us except what is common to mankind.’ That you’re not the only one who’s struggled. You’re not abnormal. You’re not disqualified. And you’re definitely not beyond grace.

So what do we do with this shame?

We drag it into the light.

That’s where the healing starts, because confession isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a weapon. It’s how we drive the enemy out of the spaces where we’ve let him linger too long. It’s how we stop being prisoners of shame and start living as sons and daughters of Light.

Freedom doesn’t come from pretending. It comes from revealing. It’s in the raw, the vulnerable, the honest cry of, “God, here I am, naked and afraid,” that He wraps us in righteousness and whispers, “You are mine.”

And oh, when that light breaks in, it breaks the chains too.

So if your heart is pounding as you read this, if something inside you whispers, “This is for me,” then it probably is. God is calling you out of hiding. Out of fear. Out of shame. And into the marvelous, liberating, breathtaking light of His love.

You don’t have to run from your past. You can run through it, straight to the cross, where Jesus doesn’t just forgive, He restores. He rewrites. He resurrects.

And that, dear one, is the beginning of FREEDOM!