My Impressionistic Life: Adam and Eve 2: Blame and Finger-pointing

Friday, August 22, 2014

Adam and Eve 2: Blame and Finger-pointing

Adam and Eve Lesson 2: Blame and Finger-Pointing

Gen 3 talks about the fall of man. Notice that when Adam and Eve got caught after eating the fruit, they pointed the finger at someone else, trying to shift the blame instead of simply saying, “I sinned and I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

To me, they actually seemed more upset about being caught than about disobeying God and breaking fellowship with Him. And I have to ask myself how often I do that, too, in my daily life. When I sin, am I more concerned with how it makes me look or how it makes me feel to get caught, or am I more concerned about the effect it has on my relationship with God and how it grieves His heart to know that I chose to disobey Him?

If I am more concerned about myself and getting caught, then I will find ways to excuse the sin, to downplay it, to cover it up, or to hide myself from God. But if I am more concerned about what it does to my relationship with God, then I will not feel right again until I fall on my face before Him and admit my sin and ask for forgiveness.

But if my relationship with Him isn’t as close and open as it should be to begin with, then I may not even notice or be bothered by the distance that sin creates between God and me. Only a heart that yearns for God will care about the destructive effects of sin on our relationship with Him. And our hearts will ache until we make it right with Him again, until we don’t care anymore about excusing our sin and only care about drawing nearer to God’s heart again. Because we know that we are incomplete apart from it. Every time we sin, which is many times a day, we have an opportunity to either excuse it (which creates distance between God and us) or to admit it and seek forgiveness. Which do you typically choose?

FYI:

2013 posts:

Includes the "Welcome" and "First Things First: Do You Know Jesus?"

And two series from my other blog:

"Understanding God's Will" (UGW) and

"Through the Refining Fire: Your 'Sweetly Broken' Journey."

Remember, though, that the first posts are at the bottom of the list, so read these series from the bottom up.

2014 posts:

Mostly random posts, generally about faith and emotional struggles, especially with depression, loneliness, and my fears of failure and abandonment.

February is the garden series.

June has my condensed life story, numbered 1-15. Start at #1.

August has lessons that I have learned from Scripture and specific Bible verses.

September covers what I think are some of the hardest spiritual lessons to learn.

December includes my "250 Questions to Ask God" and "Questions for Getting to Know Yourself and Others Better" posts.

2015 posts and up:

Back to random posts about life, faith, struggles, motherhood, etc.

May 2015 includes the "Iron Sharpens Iron Bible Study," which I hope people will do with some close friends. You can even post some of your answers in the comment section.

And January 2016 has some "Life/Mom's Advice" (start at #1 and go up) and my "Don't Be Such a Chicken" Challenge, which presents something new to do every day for a year: a new task or challenge, a question to ask yourself or God, or a "thankfulness prompt." It is my prayer that it helps you grow in God's love and healing and that it helps strengthen your faith and your relationship with God.