07/30/2023
Are you holding back from opening up to God until you have perfected yourself? Are you waiting for the time when you have become perfectly pure in thought before you seek to have a relationship with Jesus? If so you will never know them. They understand what and who you are, and yet they love you despite of it, let God begin the process of reshaping you.
“But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”
John 2:24-25 ESV
When we face a perfect God and His Son, it embarrasses us to reveal ourselves. In reading this you might be saying "Not me!" To which I quickly reply "really?"
A few years ago on a winter morning, I pulled into the parking lot at work. There were patches of black ice on the roads and parking lot that were the remnants of an ice storm we had experienced a few days earlier. Once safely in a parking space I sighed a sigh of relief at having made it to work without wrecking my car. I gathered my things, and stepped out of the car onto the pavement, closing the car door behind me. Carefully I took one step and then another, but on my third step my feet flew out from beneath me and I landed flat on my Keister. I jumped up so quickly that it shocked me, and before even taking a breath I looked around to see who had witnessed my fall. I was embarrassed by my imperfection. I didn't want anyone laughing at my misstep.
We want to appear perfect before those around us, and go to great lengths to maintain that ruse. Many fantastic lies have been concocted over time in order to achieve this... some told to others, and some to ourselves. We try to hide our true, fallible, self from God as well, and when we don't have confidence in the lies, then we hide.
This is our nature, and it has been going on since Adam and Eve took that infamous first bite of the forbidden fruit. When they fell, they didn't want God to see it either...
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Genesis 3:8 ESV
I wonder equally about Adam's response when God called him out. Listen to Adam...
“And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."”
Genesis 3:10 ESV
Was that a half truth? Was he more ashamed of having done what God had told him not to? Was His claim of nakedness just a lesser plea in a world of sin that he had opened up? Was he jumping up off the parking lot and looking around to see if anyone had witnessed his fall?
God knows us, and He knows our nature. There is nothing we can do that will surprise Him... good or bad. No lie will cover up who we are, and yet He still sees something in us worth saving; so much so that He sent His Son to die for us... to redeem us.
I find God's response to Adam's confession of nakedness to be all-telling. Listen to His words...
“He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"”
Genesis 3:11 ESV
God took Adam's claim of embarrassment, stripped it away and went right to the heart of what had happened... "Have you eaten of the tree?" Of course this was a rhetorical question because God already knew, but Adam immediately tried to shift blame for his actions in the second revelation of his nature... making excuses.
“The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."”
Genesis 3:12 ESV
This is our nature... Adam's, mine, and yours. This is what God knows about us from the moment of our conception. So if He knows this, and if we are unmistakably fallible, then how can we ever approach Him, or have a relationship with Him? He will always be there when we land on our keister in the parking lot... there is no hiding it. No there isn't, but God's grace supersedes our fallen nature. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son Jesus Christ has picked us up off the ice, dusted us off, and is now walking us to the door to a new life. I like Oswald Chambers' description of Jesus' understanding of our nature, and the power of God's grace...
"Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one." - Oswald Chambers
Don't postpone knowing God for that time when you think that you can traverse the slippery ice of life without falling. Don't expect to be pure or perfect by your own intellect or devices, because it will never happen. As much as we would like to be without shortcomings, they are a part of our nature. Perfecting ourselves requires the grace of God, and that comes by establishing a relationship with Him and Jesus.
We will take spills, tell lies, deceive ourselves and others, but God will lift us up, brush us off, and say "Let's try again." He knows all of our abilities, and inabilities; he knows us for who we are even before our feet come out from under us, so take his hand and say "I fell Father, can you help me up?"
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us despite our many shortcomings. We thank you for offering us a relationship with you that will redeem us from sin, and provide us with the purity that we can't achieve on our own. Holy Father, you know us better than we know ourselves; you hear our lies before they leave our lips, and see us fall before our first foot slips. Father, sear our lips with your cleansing coal, and hold our feet fast as we follow you. We love because you first loved us, and we have faith in you because you have never deserted us. Holy Jesus, walk with us and perfect us in purity and faith; never let us out of your sight, and let us know you for who you are always… perfect. Lord keep us from our hiding places, even in the most undeserving and embarrassing moments of our lives. Lead us always Father, and love us, even as we confess those vile and unrighteous things we have attempted to keep hidden in our hearts.
“We love because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19 ESV
Rich Forbes