Day 19: Stop Hiding

Read: Genesis 3:9-10

            My freshman year of college, I failed a class. Never in my life had I failed a class before. In elementary school and through high school, I was always either at the top of my class or part of honors. Failure in school was definitely a foreign concept to me. But this time I was so ashamed because I had not only let myself down, but my parents as well. And there were instant repercussions to that failure. I realized I’d have to pay for the class again, I was put on probation, and I had to meet with an academic counselor. 

            Telling my parents was the hardest thing I had ever had to do. I held off for as long as I could, dodging their calls, until I knew I couldn’t hide from them anymore. When I finally called to tell them what happened, the only thing that came out of their mouths was grace and love. Yes, they were disappointed in me, but they weren’t going to shame me for it. There were consequences, but what they did with me was pray. 

            In Genesis 3:9-10, God was in the garden of Eden, calling out to Adam. But as we saw yesterday, both Adam and Eve were ashamed and hiding from God. “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’” 

            Adam feared so deeply what was going to happen when God “found out” what he had done. And, he didn’t want to be punished for his disobedience. So they hid. They were running from shame and fear, from facing God and having Him see what they had done.

            Whenever we make mistakes, we have a tendency to want to find a way to escape the problem before someone notices what we’ve done. It can be as simple as toppling a display in the mall and running away before anyone find you next to the scene of the “crime.” What we need to remember, though, is that our God knows and sees everything. Even if we don’t get caught in this lifetime, there will be judgement when it comes to eternity. 

            That is why God calls us to confess our sins. We need to be in a state of repentance, and acceptance the repercussions that come when we sin, when we make mistakes. Because in reality, there’s no running away from what we’ve done. I am thankful that our God is a gracious God. But, we must remember that He is also a just and righteous Ruler, as we will see later in this chapter. 

When it comes to your failures/sins, how do you respond? Do you run from the consequences and pretend like it never happened? Or, do you stop, pray, and acknowledge what you did? Stop and ask God to help you to stay strong, to say no temptations, and to resist the instinct to run away when you do something wrong.