Promise:
God knows all about you and he still wants a relationship with you.
Passage:
In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, God’s first question isn’t “why did you do this?” or “I see you fell short of our standard and you can no longer work here in the garden.” Instead in Genesis 3:9, God asks “Where are you?”
God knew that they had eaten from the tree that God had instructed them not to each from, warning them that “they would surely die.” He also knew where they were. The previous walks that God had with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evening were disrupted that day as the couple was ridiculously hiding from God. For the first time, they no longer sought out the relationship with their maker. They feared it. They prioritized their own shame over their relationship.
God honored their privacy, as He sill does ours, and didn’t expose them, but asked a question that brought them to a response.
I wonder what would have happened if Adam and Eve had modeled a proactive and remorseful confession instead of reactive, accusatory blame. If they had come on their knees to the Lord while the fruit juice was still on their chin and sought Him out instead of hiding in wait, there might have still be consequences, but there might have been a faster reconciliation. Later in the Bible, confessions from others (David’s penitent Psalms 51 comes to mind) helped restore relationships with God.
If you are reading this study, you have likely “lost” your job. Perhaps it was taken away and given to another. Perhaps the need for the work was eliminated, leaving you without a seat in a cruel cake walk game. Perhaps you messed up and although learning a lesson, there were consequences to the mistake. Perhaps you became disinterested or distracted and could no longer give it what it needed. Perhaps you lacked the skills or will to grow alongside the needs of the business. In any case, the feeling of being “lost” or focusing on what you lost, can be overwhelming. But God knows the circumstances.
When fear and shame overwhelm you in your job search (and it is normal that they do), remember that God is asking “where are you?” and wants to be found. You can bring those burdens to him. This is not the time to hide from God. If you seek Him earnestly, He will walk alongside you.
You are not lost to God. You might just be misplaced and need to put yourself in a posture to be found by God and put back into place. Misplaced doesn’t mean broken. Like an item designed for one purpose that finds itself in another environment. God is still looking for you to be in relationship with him and will take care of the rest.
Practice:
Take an item in your home that has a regular spot and move it to another prominent location. Perhaps take a tube of toothpaste and put it on the kitchen counter or place a random kitchen appliance on your desk. Move a tool from the garage to your bedroom nightstand. Every time you see it for the next few days, think of this lesson and how God seeks to find us and restore us to our rightful place and purposes.
Pause:
As you look at the “misplaced” item, is it any less capable or functional in its current location than where it was before? If you moved your hand mixer to your office shelf, could it still function as a hand mixer?
Now, imagine yourself looking for that misplaced object in its regular location? Think of digging in the back of the cabinet, searching other locations, or asking someone if they had moved your item. Think about a time when you searched for something of value that had been misplaced and how frantic, frustrated, and fearful you became. How much more so is God searching to find you?
Now, imagine your item of value not being “lost,” but just put in a different location for a time. Perhaps for its own protection, like how someone would put a family heirloom piece of jewelry in a bank safe deposit box. How does that reflection make you think about what valuable thing you thought was lost and how it will feel to have it found?
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