How do you know if you are taking counsel from the wrong source? Here are 3 ways you can recognize that:
1) You are not comfortable in your own skin.
Adam and Eve did not find out that they were naked after eating the fruit. They knew they were naked before that according to Genesis 2:25. After they ate the fruit they did what some of us women do, they played dress up, trying to cover their guilt and be anybody else but themselves in that moment. We add in order to enhance or fix what we think are our problem areas. What used to be perfectly fine before is no longer ok. The size of your nose, shape of your eyes, ear, hair texture, and the list goes on, is a problem. If you could just fix that…you would be happy.
2) You protect or guard.
Boy, I did I do this well. I was so skillful at this no one could penetrate my walls. We are even on guard with the people who love us and the One who created us. The One who can make every wrong right in an instant. Adam and Eve hid themselves from the One who formed and shaped them.
3) You live with shame.
Shame blinds us from our value and keeps us from believing that we deserve love and forgiveness. We feel like we are no longer worthy to be in His presence or in communication with Him. We feel we are better off hiding behind a tree than be in His presence.
Some of my trials in life have been self-inflicted and some haven’t, but God’s faithfulness never ceases to amaze me. Romans 8:38 states, “…nothing can separate us from the love of God.” His love was there before, his love is here now, and searching for you after every mess up.
God did 2 things after addressing their sin.
1) He covered them- He made covering for them. Let him provide covering today.
2) He protected them- Genesis 3:22-And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” God did not want them to live in that condition, if they ate from the tree of life that would have remained in that state. He does not desire for you to live with shame and guilt forever.
God had a plan to reconcile the world through Jesus, and it is reenacted in our lives still to this today.
