Hide & Seek
Genesis 3:8,9 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to man, “Where are you?”
Sin certainly has its consequences! Before Adam and Eve chose to no longer trust and obey the Lord, they had a wonderful relationship with the Lord. In some ways it was heaven on earth, but now things had changed and Adam and Eve were not only ashamed of their nakedness, but they felt guilt for the first time. It must have been shattering to their heart and soul to experience such shame and guilt that they had never experienced before. While sin brings different emotions, there is a lot more to sin than just that. Satan and the powers of darkness will use it to rob us of the Christ-likeness in our life. Before we know what sin has cost us, our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control fades little by little with each sin until at last it is as though we have always been without them. Sin destroys our witness for Jesus. While once we enjoyed so much in telling others of our love for Jesus and his love for us, now we pull back as though we never him or loved him. Sin will even take our very life both spiritually and physically. Even doctors will admit the physical effects that sin has on our bodies. We develop ulcers, depression, suicidal thoughts, stress, headaches, nervous conditions and many more. Ultimately it destroys our health in such a way as to literally take our life.
What is the answer? Well, it wasn’t what Adam and Eve chose! God gave them an altar call to come to him as ask for forgiveness. Instead the chose to run and try to hide from God and their problem. The sad thing is people are still trying to choose the way of Adam and Eve.
II Samuel 14:14 tells us that God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that the banished person may not remain estranged from him. He did this in sending his Son Jesus Christ to earth to atone or pay for our sinfulness, so we wouldn’t have to remain estranged from God by going to spend eternity in hell where the Bible says there is great weeping and gnashing of teeth. The weeping comes from the great pain and torment and the gnashing of teeth is because of the great hatred toward God. Hell will be the opposite of heaven. There will be no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness or self-control.
Some say that in hell they will at least be with their friends. Wrong! There will be no friendship in hell! Hell will be the most lonely, sad place anyone could imagine. This is what God was trying to save Adam and Eve from, but they ran from God and chose to blame others for their sinfulness. (Gen 3:12,13)
Are you tired of running from God? Maybe you have chosen already to accept God’s gift of forgiveness in Jesus, but if you haven’t today is your alter call to find forgiveness and be set free of your guilt. To do this just say, “Jesus, please forgive me of my sins and please come into my heart. Please help me to live my life to glorify you in all I do and all I am. Thank you Jesus for doing this for me, for I ask it in your holy name. If you have prayed this prayer, you are forgiven of your past, present and even future sins as long as you continue to trust in Jesus. You know as well as I do that we are not to purposefully sin, but we are human and Jesus understands this. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and help you to love Jesus and become more like him and he will do this for you. I am proud to call you my brother or sister and Jesus is proud to call you his Bride.
Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for our sins and reconciling us with you, the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Father. You are a wonderful God and Savior!
We love you Jesus!
