Naked and Unashamed: Recovering Our True Identity

For years, I carried shame like a second skin. I didn't feel good enough, smart enough, worthy enough. I attached my identity to anything that might make me significant—school achievements, relationships, even my addictions that numbed the pain of feeling "less than." I was desperately reaching outside myself for something to make me whole.

What I didn't realize was that I was already whole. I just couldn't see it.

Today I want to take you back to the Garden of Eden, because I believe the story of the original couple reveals something crucial about our own journey toward intimacy with God—and why so many of us struggle to experience it.

The Garden Reality

Genesis tells us that before the fall, Adam and Eve "were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:25, NKJV). This wasn't just about a lack of clothing—it was about their identity. They were made in God's image and in His likeness. They were created to be one with each other and one with Him. They were complete, lacking nothing.

This was their reality: naked and unashamed. Fully known, fully seen, fully accepted.

Then Satan entered the picture with a lie that still echoes through every generation: "If you want to be like God, do something outside of yourself." The serpent suggested that eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil would make them wise, would make them like God.

But here's what breaks my heart: they already WERE like God. Made in His image and in His likeness. The lie wasn't just about the tree—it was about their identity. The lie said, "You're missing something. You're not enough. God is holding out on you."

And before they even took a bite of that fruit, they were already assessing good and evil, already doubting who they were, already disconnecting from the One who made them.

Satan's strategy hasn't changed. He doesn't care how we disconnect—through lies, wounds, religion, or works—just that we do. First from God, then from each other. Because our power comes from our unity, his strategy has always been divide and conquer.

The Twisted Perspective

After they ate, Scripture says "the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (Genesis 3:7, NKJV).

Wait. They were always naked. What changed?

Their perspective changed. Because of disconnection, they now viewed themselves differently. Instead of knowing that God was good, that God was for them, that God loved them and had provided everything they needed, that they were accepted just as they were—now they saw themselves as unworthy, not enough, and afraid.

They covered themselves with fig leaves in their most intimate parts and hid from the Lord when He came walking in the garden.

And here's the question that changes everything. When God found them hiding, He asked: "Who told you that you were naked?" (Genesis 3:11, NKJV)

Think about that. They went from naked and unashamed to naked and ashamed. There was a disconnect in reality. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32, NKJV). In the Greek, that word for truth is "reality." You will know reality, and knowing reality will set you free.

The separation twisted their perception. It wasn't real. It was a lie.

God's Response

Here's what undoes me every time I read this story: When they hid in shame and fear, God didn't come toward them with a big stick. He didn't say, "You're dang right you should be afraid! I'm going to teach you what you should be afraid of, you dirty rotten sinners!"

But isn't that kind of how we write the story in our hearts? Isn't that how we view God in terms of sin—that His wrath is going to destroy us because we are evil?

No. God moved toward them with compassion. He covered their inadequate fig leaves with animal skins—foreshadowing the Lamb of Christ who would come to take away the sin of the world. From the very beginning, He was showing them: "I've got you covered."

And here's the crucial point: Because God was moving toward them, do we know they were truly separated, or did they just feel separated?

They felt separated. The separation was on their side of the equation, not on His.

My Own Journey from Striving to Resting

I grew up in a dysfunctional home with an alcoholic dad and a mom who checked out. I was left alone physically and emotionally, and I started making bad choices to numb the pain. I smoked a pack a day by age nine, was addicted by eleven. Drugs, alcohol—you name it. It was a way of disconnecting, and I found other people who were doing the same.

When really great guys were interested in me, I didn't feel worthy. I was more comfortable with people who were broken like me. I was believing a lie about my identity, falling into that same shame that twisted Adam and Eve's reality. I was born amazing—I just didn't know it because I didn't have an amazing childhood. But that's okay. That didn't change who I really was.

Then I got saved in 2000, and everything felt like it was going to change. I was on this honeymoon with the Lord, sold out, hooked—this was better than any drug or alcohol I'd ever had. But that brokenness was still in me.

After a while, I began to let that connection with Him be slowly transferred from an inward intimacy to outward works. I went to Bible college, read the book from front to back, was in every class you could imagine. But I was learning through filters of religion that actually pushed me away from intimacy with the Lord and toward works.

One day I learned: all I had to do was relax. He was already in me, living in me, closer than my skin. All I had to do was rest. The grape attached to the vine doesn't have to struggle—it just has to yield.

I needed to start trusting Him more. I began to trust more in His ability to communicate than in my ability to hear. And then it was okay if He talked to me through a sunset, through a word, through a Bible verse, through a friend. Now I can see Him in everything, because in Him I live and move and have my being.

I don't disconnect anymore. It's not like I have my prayer time and then I have the rest of my life. My work is worship. Doing the dishes is worship—He's doing them with me. It just makes life a whole lot easier and a whole lot more productive.

Breaking the Barriers

So what are the barriers to intimacy? Shame says, "I'm not enough." Fear says, "God's not good enough—He can't be trusted."

We break shame by coming into agreement with who God says we are.

We break fear by understanding who He really is.

We can't look outside ourselves for identity or significance. Otherwise, we actually sin and fall short of the glory of who He created us to be in the first place.

And if you're not letting yourself discover what you really love, you're also holding back on who He created you to be. For most of us, we were never given that permission—whether through life's hardships, circumstances, or parents trying to make us be something they wanted us to be.

But as you relax and stop striving—"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10, NKJV). I love the Amplified version: it says "relax, let go, stop striving."

And that's actually worship. Because it's trust. Trust that He is enough. You don't have to reach outside yourself. The tree of life really is enough.

An Invitation

I want to invite you to do something simple. Close your eyes right now, or set aside time today to be still. Put your hand on your heart and ask these questions out loud:

• Jesus, I don't know how to be intimate. Will You help me?

• Father, do You love me just as I am?

• Holy Spirit, are You in me?

• Lord, what do You think of me?

Then wait. Trust whatever comes to you. It could be a word, a feeling, a knowing. You could see something. That's the Lord.

And if you don't hear anything right away, that's okay too. It took me five years. It may take you a day or two. My breakthrough is your breakthrough. What I have, I give you.

You can go home and ask these same questions. You can be in the car driving. You can be in the shower. It doesn't have to look religious. In Him you live and move and have your being. There is no divide between secular and sacred. It's all sacred.

He is good, and He loves you. He comes toward you in your brokenness because He wants to stay connected with you. Even in your darkest moment, He would never leave you nor forsake you. Never.

You were created naked and unashamed. That's still who you are in Him. You just need to see it clearly again—to know the reality that sets you free.

Stop hiding. Stop striving. You are enough, and He is more than enough.

What lies have you believed about your identity? What would it look like to simply rest in who God says you are? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Blessings,
Susan 😊