Secrets. We all have them. I’m talking about those foolish things we’ve done that haunt us so much that we want to cover them up. We don’t want others to know what we are really like inside. We do our best to hide our failures from ourselves, too, but every now and then, we can’t help but think about some stupid or thoughtless thing we have done. Then we feel that gnawing sense of shame.

Some of that shame is triggered by an enemy we have who loves to remind us of our failures and who tells us how worthless we are because of our past sinful actions. I’m not talking about your spouse. I’m talking about the Devil. The Bible calls him the great accuser (see Zechariah 3:1 and Revelation 12:10). Now, Satan is a liar (John 8:44), so he is not above trying to get us to feel guilty about something that wasn’t our fault. Most of the time, though, we give him plenty of actual failures that he can throw back into our face.

Our gut reaction to shame is to try to hide it. That is what Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed God. They hid from God and tried to cover themselves up (see Genesis 3:8-9). God came into the garden, though, and found them. Hiding from God didn’t work for them, and it doesn’t work for us either.

Here is why hiding our sin doesn’t work:

Let me say something we already know, but easily forget. It is impossible to hide anything from God. “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). When King David fell into terrible sin, he spent about a year trying in vain to hide it. Notice how that worked out for him: “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3–4).

Even worse than trying to hide our sin would be to pretend that God doesn’t know or care about it. That is very foolish. “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’ ” (Isaiah 29:15).

If you are tired of carrying around that load of shame and guilt Satan is using to grind you down and wear you out, I have good news. God has a solution that can take away all of your guilt and shame. In fact, it can turn the memories of your failures into joyful praise.

The formula for turning shame into praise is found in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins,

[Jesus] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Notice closely these four steps taken from that verse:

#1 Openly admit your sin to God. The word “confess” means to agree with God that what you have done is wrong (sin). When we do that, we are also showing that we want to live our lives differently. That is called repentance.

#2 Trust the promise that Jesus is “faithful” to forgive. In other words, He will always forgive when we confess and repent. His grace to forgive is always greater than any sin we have ever committed: “…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). How wonderful!

#3 Understand that God can forgive sin and still remain “righteous” because Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sin that God requires. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [the sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath] for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

#4 Rejoice that you have been cleansed “from all unrighteousness.”

Don’t miss this! This is how your shame can be turned into praise. Every time past sins and failures come to your mind, (if you have done #1, #2, and #3 above) praise the Lord that your sins are forever gone! They are “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

Forgiven people are happy people. “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!” (Psalm 32:1). “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account” (Romans 4:7–8).

No matter how much shame you have, Jesus’ blood can cover it when you turn to Him. There is freedom and joy in Christ.