Self-Consciousness 1

 Self-Consciousness

The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

GENESIS 3.7

Before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were naked and not ashamed. They walked with God every day without inhibition. Their focus was on Him, and they found all meaning in the union they shared with Him.

When they ate from the forbidden tree, everything instantly changed. One of the most telling consequences of their disobedience is found in this verse, ‘They knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.’ Suddenly, people no longer felt comfortable or acceptable before God. Self-consciousness filled Adam and Eve’s minds.

As you walk in grace, set your focus on your Lord and not on yourself. To allow yourself to be self-conscious will affect you just as it did Adam and Eve. It will cause you to feel inadequate and provoke an inner sense that you need to do something to be presentable to Him.

You are presentable and completely accepted by your Father. Don’t let anything cause you to look away from Him so that you become bogged down in self-condemnation. He has seen you since He created you and loves you just as you are.

Personal Ability

 Personal Ability

The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.

EXODUS 4.2-4

When God sent Moses into the desert, he lost everything he had known. The only way he still provided for himself was as a shepherd. It was his last thin strand of self-sufficiency. His shepherd’s staff represented his ability to survive, even in the hardest of times.

So God did what He always does when He wants to work through a person’s life in a miraculous way. He had Moses throw his staff down. We cannot rely on our own ability if we are to fulfill our divine destiny in life.

When Moses threw the staff down, it became a snake. Dependence on our ability instead of God is always poisonous. However, once Moses saw that fact, God told him to pick the staff back up. It’s not the ability itself that is wrong. Our mistake comes when we don’t depend on God.

God will use your ability for His glory, but never forget that it is He, not the ability you possess, who equips you.

A Futile Attempt

 A Futile Attempt

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

GENESIS 3.6

When Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was she was trying to do something evil? If we think this, we miss a crucial point. Eve wasn’t trying to do something wrong. She was trying to do something good. The serpent had told her that to eat from the tree would cause her to ‘be like God.’

Eve’s deception came in forgetting that she was already like God. She had been created in His image. It was an unnecessary and futile attempt to do anything to improve herself.

Don’t fall for the lie that you need to do something to be more godly. Your union with Jesus Christ has created you in righteousness and holiness. Accept who you are, and don’t sin by trying to do something God has said not to do, even if you think it’s a good thing.

Sin’s Consequence

 Sin’s Consequence

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

GENESIS 2.16-17

The grace of God can be seen in the Garden of Eden when He warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God cautioned Adam that he would die if he ate from that tree. Notice that God did not tell Adam that He would kill him if he ate from the tree. The prohibition was given in love, not as a threat.

Over the millennia many have misunderstood this text. They have seen it as a warning from God about what He would do if man sinned. Nothing could be further from the truth. God warned man about what sin would do to him if he submitted to it.

Your Father isn’t out to get you when you sin. He has given warnings in the Bible about sin and its consequences, but remember this, it is sin that punishes, not God. To the contrary, when Adam sinned and hid from his God, the Father came to him to rescue him. He does the same for you. Never think otherwise.

God’s First Moment with Mankind

 God’s First Moment with Mankind

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

GENESIS 1.28

The heart of your God is seen in the way He related to mankind immediately after He had created them, during the first moments of Adam and Eve’s existence. What was the very first thing He did in His relationship to His highest creation? ‘God blessed them.’

Your concept of your Creator will largely determine the way you relate to Him. If you see Him as a Great Judge who carefully watches your behavior to make sure you’re doing the right things, you have misunderstood your Father. God created you to bless you.

The first word He spoke to mankind was, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ His first word was to speak blessing into their lives. Dead religion presents a false caricature of God, presenting Him as one who is primarily concerned with our behaviour. The Bible shows Him as being very different. His concern is simply with you.

Your God wants to bless you today. He speaks words of loving encouragement to you. Go forth into your day with that assurance.

A New Day

 A New Day

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

GENESIS 1.5

If you were asked to name the parts of a day, what would you say? Most people would list morning, afternoon, and night. But that’s not the way the Bible identifies a day. When God created all things, the Scripture indicates that the evening came first in a new day.

Most people think new days begin when things start to get light. God doesn’t order a full day that way. The Jewish faith recognises that although the Sabbath is Saturday, it begins at sunset on Friday evening. That is the start of the new day, the Sabbath Day.

If things seem to be getting darker in your life, be encouraged that this may be the beginning of a new day in life. We all like to see the light begin to shine, but remember that your Father starts a new time when it begins to get dark.

Don’t become discouraged if you have prayed for Him to work in your circumstances and it seems things are getting darker. That may point to the answer to your prayer. Just keep trusting Him, and in His time, the light will shine again.

Created for Relationship

 Created for Relationship

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

GENESIS 1.1

The first verse of the Bible implies an important truth that will affect your walk of grace as much as anything possibly could. 

The word God is plural in the original Hebrew text. In the very first verse of the Bible there is an immediate implied reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Why is this triune aspect of God important? Because it sets forth from the beginning that our God is first and foremost relational. The love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the most important and foundational truth we can speak about God. John said, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4.8). 

It is only when we understand the loving interaction between the Father, Son, and Spirit that we will find our walk of grace headed in the right direction.

You have been created to live in relationship. The most important relationship you will experience is to be a child of God. 

Beyond that, your life is interconnected with others. Value the relationships you have in this world. Nurture them, knowing that they find their roots in God Himself.