Are you grieving God?

Going through Genesis, we firstly see the joy and wonder of creation, and the imagination, purity and delight of God in what He has made, but soon it all goes wrong….

Why does it go wrong?

Well, pretty much because mankind want to do things their way. Adam and Eve were tempted, and then the initial mistrust in God then leads into sin, depravity and destruction as we through the synopsis of chapter 5. Then we hit chapter 6, and the sad reality; 

‘The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. *6*And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.’

Genesis 6:5-6

God allowed, and still allows, humans to make up their own minds, to have opinions and choices, but what does getting our own way lead to? If we take Adam and Eve as an example, and consider the reality of our own lives, we can see that doubting God and His goodness leads to thinking we know better and not doing as He wants. This can commence the rapid descent into sin, just like it did for Adam and Eve.

Without challenging the doubt of God, and remembering who God really is did not end well for the first humans in existence, for the generations that followed them it ended up with; murder, boasting, polygamy, unhealthy relationships and further distance put between God and His own creation. The same can happen for you, in your life, for your descendants. 

What would God see if He looked at you life today? 

You have a choice. You get to decide whether you live a life faithful to God or not. 

I am really struck by the last 5 words of verse 6, that the sin on the Earth, 'grieved him to his heart.’ I want no part of grieving God, do you? 

Do you know why God grieves? Do you realise that only things that are dearly loved are dearly grieved? It is because of God’s enormous love for you that you grieve Him when you do things wrong, and lead your life on a trajectory further and further away from Him. It is not because God hates you that He grieves, but because of the depth of love He has for you - His creation, a person made in His very own image.

Take a moment to consider the immensity of God's love for you, and then reflect on the way your life is going, what direction are you taking? Are you making decisions that are moving towards or away from Him? 

Restored relationship

 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. *9*But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” *10*And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” *11*He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” *12*The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” *13*Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” 

Genesis 3:8-13

This section of scripture shows us that God knows. 

If there’s anything you’ve done in secret, God has seen it. That should give you comfort if you are secretly serving, giving and praying or doing something good. God sees it, He knows what you’ve been up to.

If there are things you know you shouldn’t be doing, God also sees it. But don’t despair, because read on to see how God handles it.

Adam and Eve know they’ve done something they shouldn’t have, and God knows they’ve done wrong, yet, even though some may have you believe that God is fierce and harsh God; He doesn’t rant, He doesn’t rain down fire or pour out punishment, what does He do? God asks questions.

God knows they are not positioned as they usually are to meet Him, so He simply asks them, “where are you?” God knows, but He is still inviting them both to come and meet Him, God continues to desire their presence, did you notice that? These first people He made stuffed up, yet He still wants to see them, it is the same for you.

Once Adam answered, God could tell the man wasn’t feeling right about himself, Adam knew that something had changed in the relationship and he wasn’t committable about it, and certainly not comfortable about approaching God with his wrongdoing (nothing much has changed in the last few thousand years has it?!). 

God also realised that what Adam told Him was not the whole story, so God then made it clear that He knew the problem and gave Adam the chance to confess it. God is doing the same for you. He cares more about you and His relationship between you than the sin you get caught up in.

God still wants to be close to you if you’ve done something you know you shouldn’t, He still wants to enjoy the relationship you have. He won’t hurt you, but He will desire for you to clean up your mess. He wants you to admit there’s a problem, not hear a load of excuses. Are you ready to be honest with yourself and God? 

God will ask you what you have done, are you ready to answer Him? 

There may well be consequences, but ultimately God wants to restore you to Himself so that you can hang out again. That’s the whole reason Jesus lived, died and rose again. It was all about that relationship being made right. 

If you know your relationship with God is not in a good place, take a bit of time today to figure out why. Is there something you’ve done or not done that needs sorting out? You need to admit it to yourself and God, why? Well, don’t you want to be invited to walk with God? Don’t you want to be free from the secret sin and the guilt and shame?

Today is a new opportunity to walk with God in the garden, there may be some hard conversation to be had, but you can be restored.