by the 3rd chapter of genesis men and women had already decided they could do what they wanted without god; eat a piece of fruit. we could blame the devil himself for saying "he told me to do it; he said we could be like you." every act that god says no to and we do is saying "we think we know better than you." i am sure by the end of the chapter they wished they could go back. from the very beginning men and women believed they could do it better.
john macarthur has been doing a series on his website about discernment. by far my favorite posting has been about discernment of ourselves. i truly believe that if we do not understand or deny our very nature that came from the fall we don't understand who god is. my first confession to god before i accepted his son was "i hate you for doing this and i hate you for holding me accountable." i was fighting with all of the anger i could come up with and he was saying "bring it on little girl." it was messy and painful. when i finally went i wept with pain and asked for forgiveness. grace was given. it is a hard thing to admit what we have done wrong, and i did a lot of wrong.
here is a question; does it offend you when god tells you, you are wrong? does it offend you when someone corrects you about scripture? does it offend you when a pastor or friend tells you that you are wrong, and you need to think about that? then you don't understand god. you don't understand that love is accountability. you don't understand that repentance is obedience. you don't understand that every time you deny that you don't do something is an act of disobedience. i would think that we would want to repent, because the blessing that comes from that is him. the blessing and the gift is eternity in heaven.
my sons learned a hard lesson about repentance last week. they kept giving me hollow, fake apologies. i don't accept those. i wouldn't take them because i told them they were not admitting what they had done wrong. it took about 2 hours of crying and screaming for them to get it right. i told them they were forgiven, that i loved them, and i was sorry that i had lost my patience and temper with them. that is a lesson in repentance, humility, love and grace right there.
god is not punishing us if things in are life are not easy. he is allowing us to see all of the beautiful things around us in the midst of our trial. repentance is beautiful. it is authentic faith. this past easter sunday was beautiful. the whole day i was in such immense physical pain that every breath i took that day was me saying please help me god. he showed me the beauty of friends and family, of children laughing, and food on the table. he showed me that even in my pain there was great beauty and blessings around.
search your hearts honestly. jesus knows what it is your heart so what is the point of denying that.
Scripture is clear that believers must be faithful to examine and judge our own selves: “If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). This calls for a careful searching and judging of our own hearts. Paul called for this self-examination every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper (v. 28). All other righteous forms of judgment depend on this honest self-examination. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “First take the log out of your own eye” (Luke 6:42). John MacArthur - Grace to You.org
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