Hiding From God
Last week I had a slip up and my prayer/reading time took a nose dive but my T.V. intake skyrocketed. I did repent of my sin last week but I failed to increase my prayer and reading more. I felt God speaking to me later in the week reminding me of how I was in HS. God has blessed me with a family who prays for me and gives me spiritual advice and guidance…who took me in before they really even knew me. I used to go over there all the time but when I would mess up and fall into sin I wouldn’t show up for a few days. Mrs. McCrary always knew when I was messing up either via God waking her up to pray for me or me telling on myself by not visiting for a few days.
I am not 100% for sure why I didn’t go over there but I feel part was because I didn’t want to be accountable for the sin I committed and I didn’t want to see her disappointment in me. Though every time I eventually made it over there she would ask me, how have I been? then what did I do? I would confess what I did and she would always tell me, “you know what you did was wrong. To repent of it and to not let it discourage me from seeking after God. That she still loved me and encouraged me to keep on keeping on.” She never kicked me down or looked down on me but always handled every situation with compassion.
God revealed to me that I am still carrying the same habits with Him now. I didn’t want to confess to Him because I didn’t want to face my fault but I did because I know He already knew. Though I allowed my fault, my ignorance, my pride, to keep me from seeking His face and instead of running towards Him I am hiding from Him. I can see now that God handles the situations in much of the same way as Mrs. McCrary…though I feel He might discipline at times but that is always a good thing for it shows He loves me (Proverbs 3:11-12). Sadly this was a new revelation for me, that I “hid” from God.
Sunday after church I was talking to one of the children in the church and he was telling about their kids church message…don’t hide from God like Adam and Eve did. Gen 3. 1) I found it as a confirmation as what God had shown me and 2) that this was being taught as a lesson to children…made me realize that not being raised in church that I missed a lot of basic instruction in my life. Now I know that I have learned a lot over the years but there are times, just like in sports, you have to go back to the basics!
We see in Gen 3 that God didn’t kill Adam and his wife off but instead displayed love by disciplining them for their sinful actions. Instead of the wrath of God, He showed compassion by creating atonement for sins by creating a sacrifice on behalf of Adam and his wife(Gen 3:21). We are sinful by nature…if we lived a perfect life we would still be sinful because we are born of man. Sin is inherited from man but again God showed His love by sending His only Son who gave up Heaven at the right hand of the Father to come to earth as man but not of man. His loving sacrifice was the perfect and acceptable sacrifice for mans sins forever and ever. The blood of Christ washes away our sins forever, just as the blood of innocent animal was an appropriate sacrifice for their sins for a short period of time. Gods love is unconditional, meaning there is no act, work, sacrifice, gift, etc that can get us into Heaven, that gift is FREELY given to those who ask with a repentant heart. Once saved we become disciples of Christ, we must follow the Masters commands to grow in Christ in becoming a mature Christian.
I encourage everyone to continue seeking after Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Forgetting about everything and just focusing on Him. But when we sin, let us run towards the Father and not hide from Him. He knows all, from the time we received Christ into our lives…regardless He still chose to accept us just as we are and that doesn’t change.
