TITLE: Being Honest with God By Anthony Tringale 01/03/12 |
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I did write this very quickly so i don't expect this to be perfect.
"And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me--she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate." (Genesis 8-12 AMP)
"When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God. God called to the Man: "Where are you?" He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid." God said, "Who told you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?" The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion,
she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." (Genesis 3:8-12 MSG)
The scripture above is pretty basic. Adam and Eve sin by eating the fruit from the tree that God said not to eat from. This opens the door to a whole gamete of sinfulness to enter into the picture. I view this in a slightly different way.
I look at these five verses and see Adam trying to divert Gods attention from the obvious issue. I see Adam trying to deal with the manifestation of the sin and not the sin itself. The manifestation is Adams Guilt, His shame, His awareness, and His blame. Adam does not directly admit his guiltiness. Rather, He tries to avoid the real issue by attempting to raise awareness to issues that don't really matter.
Adams response doesn't catch my attention because of the flawed human nature that refuses to deal with the root issue. His response catches my attention because God, being the perfect example of a leader, realizes that He needs to deal with the root sin and not the manifestation of the sin.
I can see this same issue in my life. I usually try to deal with the manifestation of the sin and not the sin itself. I like to blame the circumstances or the people around me rather than accept the blame myself. It wasn't until a few months ago that I realized what I had been doing for years and decided to sit down and allow God to change my thinking and my heart.
"O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me. You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off. You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether." (Psalm 139:1-4 AMP)
God knows what I am dealing with in life and He is waiting to help. All He needs is a willing heart and contrite spirit. He understands why I have a hard time developing quality relationships. He understands why I have a hard time saying "NO" to people. He wants to deal with the root issues in my life so He can then facilitate the lasting change. That is part of the beauty of my Lord. He never just looks skin deep, He examines the heart and then guides me in the path of Righteousness.
Now is the time God is telling His children to return home. Stop faking it, stop running from Him, stop thinking you have it all figured out, stop putting on a show when you're at church. Return to your first love because you desire a quality relationship with Him, and not because it's the new "church" thing to do. You can be completely and totally honest with God and know that He will guide you back home.
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