Would You Walk Around Naked?

Did I get your attention with that title? God did this morning while I was reading in Isaiah. I read again the story of when God told Isaiah "take off all your clothes, including your sandals." Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, "my servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign -- a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia." Isaiah 20:2-3 Can you believe it? God actually ask him to take off all of his clothes. Not for the day, the week, or even a month, but THREE YEARS! I can't even imagine. How humiliating. Yet God ask him and he obeyed. How many times has God asked me to do something? I start, then get tired of it, and put my clothes back on. Can I be that faithful? Trust Him? Let myself eat some humble pie my friend Paula wrote about? Fix my eyes on Him and remember it's not about me and my comfort but His glory.

Later, in Hebrews I read... "For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God whom we must explain all that we have done." Hebrews 4:12-13. There was that word again. NAKED. God has called me to be naked. Not only before him, but with others as well. Exposed for what I really am. A sinner. Someone with bruises, bumps, fat, flaws... Open, honest, real... Seeking him, sometimes failing sometimes succeeding. Real.

Dear Father God, I praise you for your Word. Thank you that it can cut deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. Change my desires and thoughts to you and what you want. Help me be real and naked before you and others. May you be glorified in everything I do and say. In Jesus name. Amen