Seamless预览

[The video portion of this devotional is not available on your device. To view this video, visit your plan at www.Bible.com] After their disobedience, Adam and Eve were filled with shame, aware of their nakedness and fearful of the consequences of sin. They attempted to hide themselves from God and as they did, God asked His “first question.” In Genesis 3:9, God calls to Adam, “Where are you?” God wasn’t asking them to identify their location, but rather their condition. In effect He was asking: “Where are your hearts? What in the world are you thinking, imagining that you can so blatantly disregard Me and then hide?” As you read Scripture, I want you to challenge yourself to start thinking critically about the passages and applying them to yourself instead of seeing each story as a far-removed history lesson. In other words, when you read the question, “Where are you?” imagine that He’s talking to you. Are you hiding? Doubting? Be honest. No matter where you are, know this: it is not a surprise to God. He knows where you are exactly as He knew where they were. What He wants from you is the same as what He wanted from them: to come to Him, no matter how difficult, instead of allowing Satan to continue oppressing you. After God sends Adam and Eve out of the garden, the pattern of sin continues. The condition of humanity continued to decline, until we come to Genesis 6:5-7. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” God is taking stock of the way creation is behaving, and He is grieved by how far from Him they have wandered. He recognizes that this will continue to worsen, alienating them further from Himself.  God is entirely separate from us, and fully sovereign—meaning He can do what He wants when He wants. He is also fully love so what He does is loving whether we can presently understand or not. He cannot go against His nature or His promises, and we will see that in the coming days.