God's Perspective of you has not changed!

This week, I kept hearing the name Adam. Anytime the Spirit drops a name or scripture in my spirit. I usually research it. So, I went back to the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, particularly right before the fall and immediately after. I want to share with you the insight the spirit provided to me. We will start with the last verse of Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2:25 (NLT) – Now the man and his wife were not both naked, but they felt no shame.

I started with this verse because the word naked stood out to me. I asked myself, why would the Bible point out that they were naked. Well, the word Naked in the dictionary means to be bare, uncovered, undisguised, or unveiled. The Bible also lets us know in this verse, not only were they naked but they were also unashamed which means they were not embarrassed or didn’t feel guilty about their nakedness. They were in Gods dwelling, communing with him unapologetically exposed. Let’s be real for a second, I know a lot of people who cannot be “naked” before their spouse without feeling some type of embarrassment. That’s physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually, myself included. Adam and Eve had the privilege of being that way before GOD! And He allowed them to be in his presence just as they were. 

Let’s continue…

Genesis 3:1-7 (NLT) reads..  The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked thee woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, “ You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” “You wont die!” The serpent replied to the woman. “God knows your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.  Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Let’s pause right here, initially I was going to skip this part because we all have heard about the serpent deceiving the woman a million times, or at least I have. But I think there’s something interesting here. We know the enemy as the father of lies, but I want to point out that in this story he didn’t necessarily lie to her. In fact he told her the truth, he told her that her eyes would be opened, she would be like God knowing good and evil. The problem is that he did not tell her the whole truth. He did not tell her that she would know the good and evil about herself. That is important to note as we read the next few verses. 

Genesis 3: 8-11 (NLT) When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So, they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. 

I will stop there but I changed the font color of the last sentence because that sentence alone let me know that God’s perception of Adam had not changed.  When I think about these few verses, this is how I imagine it. God goes to Adam, per usual, to see how his day is going. Adam hides from God. So, God calls for Adam, and when Adam finally approaches God, instead being his confident self, he appears timid. I imagine God, saying to Adam, why are you being weird towards me?! And Adam explains his feeling of inadequacy because he has become self-aware. And in his self-awareness, he realizes he is not perfect and therefore cannot confidently stand before a perfect God. And God says to him, who told you were naked? In other words, who told you that you were exposed. 

The truth about it all is that God already knew who Adam was, he created him. He also knew, just like the serpent knew if Adam knew just how filthy he was then he would hide from God and God couldn’t continue the relationship he had with Adam. Not because God changed but because Adam changed. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Adam approached God like a man and admitted what he did instead of hiding from him. Thankfully the answer has already been provided. 

This High Priest (Jesus) of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of thee same testing's we do, yet did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.- Hebrews 4:15-16

 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. -1 John 1:8-9

Simply put, God still wants us to boldly come before him and confess our sins. I feel as if I must give a warning, because I don’t want to mislead anyone. Just because we confess our sins to God, it does not mean that we will escape punishment. We see that in David’s story.   

I will end this by pointing out that when it comes to Adam’s story, we tend to focus on the sin itself instead of the action that followed which to me is worse. He allowed his sin to change his relationship with God. DON’T BE LIKE ADAM!  Learn from his story, don’t let sin be then reason that you run from God. Understand that God sees you just how he created you, beautifully flawed and still wants to commune with you. He wants your naked truth. It is in your willingness to be exposed that creates intimacy with God and others. At least with God, I can guarantee that his perception of you will not change. 

With Love, 

Marcia

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