Then the man and his wife heard the sound of LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." Then He asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
~ Genesis 3:8-11 (HCSB)
So the story continues as we know, Adam is confronted for what he had done wrong, he throws Eve under the bus pretty quickly & Eve proceeds to throw the serpent under the bus even quicker. Not once do Adam & Eve consider saying "Okay so maybe I was a little guilty in all of this." No, in the garden at the point that they were caught they didn't see responsibility as an option.
Blame shifting. Being a Victim. Denial of guilt. Running. Hiding. FEAR...of punishment, rejection, disappointment of a parent, loss of everything. JUST PLAIN FEAR. All the emotions & things we experience today were being experienced right there in the garden right before God. None of what we go through, none of this, nothing that we do is ever going to be new to an Almighty, All knowing God. NONE OF IT, NOT EVER!
Today we don't have a little serpent sliding on it's belly telling us to eat the forbidden fruit so that we can have the power of knowledge. To be honest, I don't know if I would have been as trusting as Eve was, but in her defense she only knew good & I've had the benefit of experiencing the power of evil. But yet, I understand her trust & desire to want to know it all, to control it all, to have that mighty power that was dangled before her. For Christians living in today's world, society is our serpent. It dangles sin right before us day in & day out. It entices us in ways that we don't even realize sometimes until it's too late. Wealth. Power. Control. Good looks. Nice bodies. Sex appeal. Big houses. Fancy Cars. Exotic Vacations. Anything that spells I AM SUCCESSFUL! I mean who doesn't want those things? Society says these things give us RESPECT, ACCEPTANCE, APPROVAL. That's what society says...it doesn't matter if it takes time from our spouse, our children, our causes, our church life, or even from God. We get caught up in this life, in what society says is important and before we know it these things have become our God, our IDOLS! Idolatry is when you make something more important that God & when life's activities start to take away your time with God you are worshiping at the alter of an idol.
For me, I personally focus on the home & my family. I do it because I strive to be a Proverbs 31 woman, but I'm not perfect & I eventually slip in my chores or the family activities that I wish we were doing. When I realize that I've slipped I become super obsessed with the chores, the activities & I forget why I am doing it. I forget my pursuit of being a Proverbs 31 wife & mother. I forget that in all things I need to bring glory to God. When I become a crazy woman who is cleaning all day & making the "perfect" home so that my husband can be happy & my kids can be glad to call me mommy, but I neglect to find time to read my bible & do studies with my kids I am really worshiping at the idol of acceptance. When I plan activities that are fun for my family & I post to social media sights so that the world can see what we are doing, I am worshiping at the idol of acceptance. When I look at some one else's life & say "Ugh...I wish that was us" I am worshiping at the idol of envy. When I make list & list & plot out our days without accepting that things may change & not go as planned, I am worshiping at the idol of control. Obviously, I am not saying that these things are bad in nature, I am saying when I put them before God, before the time I spend with him everyday, before my family then I make them bad. When I do things so that others will say "Wow, that's awesome" then I have done whatever I am doing for all the wrong reasons. I think we all do this from time to time. We slip & fall into the trap that the serpent dangles before us. We let our quiet time with Lord get pushed aside or spend less time in his word daily. When we do this it allows for evil to get into our minds & hearts just a little bit easier.
Once we realize what we have done, we tend to fight taking responsibility for our sin. We run & we try to hide from God. LIKE WE COULD EVER REALLY HIDE FROM GOD??? We pretend He didn't see. We tell ourselves, "Maybe He doesn't know!" YEAH RIGHT, LIKE GOD DOESN'T REALLY KNOW OUR HEARTS??? So finally we hear Him calling us and we know that we have to go to him. So we go and we try to convince Him that it wasn't our fault. Someone else made us do it, we just didn't know what would happen, we didn't realize that it was wrong. Whatever we tell Him, we push the blame somewhere else. It's hard to admit when we are wrong. It's hard to know that someone paid the price for your sin with HIS blood. When you really think about it, step by step, how Jesus paid the price for us & yet we sin & sin & sin...I am guilty & I feel bad. It makes me sad, it makes me cry, it makes rejoice to know that I can go confess my sins & be free to try & live a better life. I know I am going to sin, God knows that I am going to sin. What I have to do is run to God & immediately confess my sin. I have to get on my knees, repent & ask forgiveness. I have to ask for strength to fight the serpent that dangles sin right in front of me.
We all have weakness, we all have our crosses to bear. It's our daily battle that we have to fight. The good news is that we don't have to fight it alone. And even though we don't have the strength to fight, our Lord & Savior will be strong enough for us.
"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weakness, so that Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (HCSB)
So we must stop running & hiding & shifting blame & fearing the worst. We need to let it go by running to our loving Savior, confess our sins & take responsibility for our actions. It's through our confession of sins that we are free from them. He paid our ransom. Our debts have been cleared, wiped clean. We don't need to run & hide anymore. We need to surrender our lives to the Lord, be responsible for the choices we make, hold those choices up this HIS word and make sure they align, we need to bring glory to his name in all we do. We need to admit that our lives belong to someone other than ourselves, they belong to God & WE NEED TO LIVE SECOND!
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