Don't Shrink Back!

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the glory of God that clothed them was removed and they realized their nakedness. Their sin caused them to feel to feel shame, and they hid when they knew that God was coming to talk with them. (Genesis 3)

As a PK (Preacher's Kid), I've been blessed to be around numerous men and women of God growing up. When I was younger, I would enjoy sitting in the back rooms and listening in on their conversations. It was enlightening to hear what they were like when they weren't preaching to a crowd of people. I thank God that the majority of those men and women were people of integrity and set good examples for me.

It's funny because most of my friends didn't feel the same way that I did about hanging around the preachers. They wouldn't want to go and talk to the ministers out of fear that God would reveal to them something negative about my friends. They were afraid that their 'sins' would be exposed. They shrank back from the anointing God had placed on those people's lives.

In the same way, some of us shrink back from God's presence when we are in sin. We don't pray as deeply as we normally would (if we pray at all). Some of us stop going to church. Others dodge ministry leaders in our church. Like my friends, we don't want to be 'exposed', we don't want anyone to hone in on our secret sins.

Yet, if we continue reading Adam and Eve's story, we see that even though God rightly rebuked them, He made a way for the sins to be covered. At that time, it took the sacrifice of a lamb, but God told Adam and Eve what to do to make things right. He even gave them the lamb's wool as a covering for their nakedness.

We all sin and fall short of God's glory. However, we serve a just and gracious God. Of course there are consequences for our sin, but God's grace is there to cover and make things right again. We are blessed to have the eternal sacrifice of God's Son, Jesus, to cover our transgressions. And He has made a way for us to be reconciled with God.

So what you fell? That doesn't mean that you should turn away from God's presence. It's all the more reason for you to run to Him, so He can make you whole again. Don't shrink back, press in. Your Heavenly Father is waiting with love to make it all okay.

Verse of the Day: God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9, 10