The Fear Of A Man And The Goodness Of God.

The fear of a man and the goodness of God.

I find myself thinking today of the way God is towards us. How He is good beyond our own understanding, and beyond our fears. I don’t know if you who read this have ever known the goodness of God before or not. I don’t know if you have tasted the goodness of God and turned your back on Him.

Maybe you don’t talk with God as you once did, or maybe you have never spoken a word to Him in your life. I simply don’t know. But I do know I have spoken with God. I know He has called out to you through the voice of those who preach.

You see men and women have this habit of running away. How many times have you known you had to do something but tried to get out of it? Because it was uncomfortable for you to do…you tried to pretend that it didn’t exist. We all have done it. We call in sick to work to spend time elsewhere, or we put off those chores that need done to go to the movies. I know I am not the only guilty one here.

Sometimes it’s too hard to come out of hiding and admit I have something I need to get taken care of! We hide instead, not willing to face up to it.

We act this way with God as well you know. “Well, I know I need to get right with God, but I need to get some things under control first.” We tell ourselves. Maybe you have said to yourself, “I just don’t know how to make it right again.” So we hide ourselves from God.

We can pretend He isn’t there, or act as though we will fix ourselves back up when we can and then present ourselves to Jesus. As though we could ever hope to fix ourselves in the first place. But it’s so hard it seems to get down on our knees and admit we need help! We choose to hide because it’s “easier”.

Does this sound like anything you know about?

Well, let me tell you we are not the first to deal with this habit. I am going to compare us to someone in the bible I think you all know. His name was Adam. In genesis (the very first book of the bible) we find the picture of a man with the same problem.

I want you to imagine yourself in his position. You’re in the Garden of Eden. All is well. The lion is cuddling up to the lamb ready for a nap. The vines are growing these basket ball size grapes. When boom…you make a huge mistake! You just ate the wrong fruit.

Guilt rushes into your mind as you and your mate try desperately to cover yourselves up. Knowing your naked is one thing, but now…here comes God! You’re standing there naked and ashamed. You just did something He told you not to do. The guilt is written all over your face as you hear the voice of God calling to you.

His voice is pleasant as always. The two of you had talked many times before around this same time. God has been your friend. But now you have done something He told you would cause you to die! You betrayed God Himself!

What would you feel like doing?

Well let’s look at what Adam did. Chapter 3 verse 8 of genesis. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

This is where it all begins people. Adam hid from God because he couldn’t face up to what was happening. He thought “If I hide here and cover myself up before He sees me…then he won’t know and I can pretend everything is fine.”

Now you know he lost it here…because he knew God was not one you could hide from. You know Adam’s next though had to be “OH NO!!! HE JUST HEARD WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!”

How many times have you had to come to the realization that what you are running away from is still going to be there when you run out of breath? When you get back from the movies that laundry is still going to need cleaning you know?

As far as Adam goes…no matter how long he hides, he is still going to suffer the consequences of his actions. No matter how many leaves he sowed together, he is still going to be naked underneath.

No matter how many things you get together, you’re still not going to be good enough to stand next to God. Because we are all still naked under our “fig leaves” called good works and attitudes.