God is love ! God is compassionate, merciful, gracious, abounding in goodness and in truth. God loves you, God loves me. God loves me with an inginite love. A love that will take me eternity to begin to understand. God loves more than I can ever love myself, than anyone can ever love me. God so loves me and you that He would rather die than lose us for eternity. God's love for me and you is incomprehensible . God loves you!
But sin has created a breach of trust between us and God so that we now see the loving Creator as someone who is seeking to destroy us. The moment Adam and Eve sinned, their perception of God changed. As before they used to come to God, now they fled from His presence. They used to enjoy His presence, now they hide from Him for fear that He would destroy them. But God did not come after them to destroy them, but He came after them to save them from ruin, to give them a promise of hope , and to lay down His life for them.
But many of us are continuing in the same path as Adam and Eve after sin. We are continuing to hide from God, fearing Him, thinking He is out to destroy us, fearing that He doesn't want us to have fun in life. Many are hiding from God because deep down we don't think God has our best interest at heart. We think if we were to come to Jesus and surrender our hearts to Him, our lives would become boring, we would no longer be cool to the world , we would no longer be anle to enjoy the things we love and so many runs away from the call of God, hide from the loving Jesus .
Many are in the church 💒 physically but inwardly are hiding from the Lord. Many are pastors, elders, deacons, praise teams members, participating in the church service but inwardly are in deep hiding from the Lord. Adam and Eve were still in the garden of Eden, the garden of God while they were hiding. So how do we hide from God when God can see all things 🤔? We hide from God by hiding our true selves from Him as if He couldn't see us. The Lord doesn't force Himself on us and so He will not come to our lives unless we invite Him in .
What the world see is not who we really are. The world sees our physical exterior ,but who we really are is the inner person within. The thoughts, the feelings, the heart within. We hide from God by hiding these things from God. A man can be at church preaching, but he is living a secret life of sin and if he doesn't speak to God about these sins, these struggles, this man is hiding from God on the pulpit itself . Hiding from God will only destroy us because the truth is God does see us and so we are only fooling ourselves and denying ourselves the experience of His love, of true freedom.
The other day, the cops caught an escaped fugitive Danelo Cavalcante who had escaped from prison. The fugitive was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and managed to escape from prison. The cops hunted him down to return him to prison. Danelo was desperate, armed and dangerous and a threat to the public. Many of us are fleeing from God, from the justice of His law and are armed with all sorts of defence mechanisms, are disparate and dangerous to ourselves and to each other. Jesus is also pursuing us, but the good news is, He is not pursuing us to lock us up in prison, but to free us from the power of sin that had captured us. Jesus is pursuing us with His love, not with weapons of war to destroy us . He took the death we deserve to give us His life of joy and freedom. There is no need to hide from such a pursuer .
Friends, we need to stop hiding from God! So how do we stop hiding from the Lord🤔? We stop hiding from the Lord by coming as we are to His presence. How do we come as we are to His presence? By exposing our inner person to Him in prayer. How do I do that? By speaking to God about the real you, your real thoughts, your secret sins and faults. Can you give me some examples 🤔? I am glad you ask my friend. Let's say you struggle with lying, you come to the Lord and say Lord I am a liar, I lie for no reason, please purify my lying lips, please help me to speak the truth.
We stop hiding from God when we reveal our secrets to Him in prayer. Lord I am a proud person, help me to be humble. Lord, I struggle with sexual sins, help me to be pure. Lord I struggle with greed, help me to be content. Lord, I struggle with suicidal thoughts, give me the victory. Lord, I hate you because of this or that, help me to love you. Lord, I am afraid of you, help me to come to you. Lord, I don't think you love me, help me to see your love. Lord, I don't think you have my best interest at heart, help me to know and understand you want what's best for me. Exposing the inner person to God in prayer is how we draw nearer to Christ.
As we draw nearer to Christ, we are moving from darkness to light. As we exposed our inner person to God in prayer, the Holy Spirit will begin to wash us with the blood of Christ, to purify our inner person and you will start to feel lighter from the burden of guilt, shame and sin, you will start to experience true freedom, true life. Friends, God loves you! God is not seeking to destroy you, but to set you free from the power of sin destroying you. God loves you friend and He seeking you out so He can give you abundant life, eternal life. Friends, let us stop hiding from God, let us be vulnerable with Him in prayer, let us open our hearts to Him in prayer and He will surely heal us 🙏🏾
https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-prison-escape-danelo-cavalcante-brazil-057903609fa9a6815c19d9614988b349
Comments