Genesis 3:9 (NLT)
“Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Spiritually speaking, we’ve got some place to be. This is urgent, and it must be thought of in this way. We have a destiny in the Lord Jesus Christ and a purpose within the Plan and Will of God. Many of us don’t understand the urgency of this call. We think we’ve got plenty of time to figure it all out, but if when we take an honest look at our lives and discover that things are not coming together as we expected, it’s because we’re at point B and we should be at point D. Many of us are feeling out of place, like we’re not living the life we were meant to live. All of this is our inner voice reminding us that we’ve got some place to be, and we need to surrender to God through the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can get on the path of His purpose.
One of the lessons of our past experiences and encounters have taught us that God will not force us to come to Him. He will not make us love Him, and He will not intrude where He is not invited. We’ve been able to live by our own choices and decisions, but if our names are written in God’s Book of Life, and He has identified us as one of His own, life will not cooperate with us until we recognize who we are. Romans 8:29-31(NIV) tells us, “29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
We didn’t choose God first, He chose us first. He predestined us and knew that we would be His even before the foundation of the world. He’s not moving us about like puppets, and there’s no preplanned script that we must follow perfectly but understanding that we must relinquish the wheel of our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ is a must. We must be fully conscious of the reality that God has some place for us to be. As His called-out ones, this is very exciting news. Our Heavenly Father tells us in Ephesians 2:10(NIV), “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Abundance, rewards, and the accomplishment of meaningful goals are tied to the good works God prepared in advance for us to do. Many of us forget this. It happened to Adam, the first man. It must have slipped his mind that God had someplace for him to be, and that following God throughout his existence guaranteed his success. He must have forget that God is sovereign, and His Word is absolute. Adam and his wife ate from the tree that God specifically told them in Genesis 2:17(NIV) not to eat. He commanded Adam and his wife, Eve, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” They did not follow His commandment. Positionally, Adam’s and Eve’s choice to disobey God moved themselves out of God’s territory of protection, provision, and intimate fellowship with Him.
Genesis 3:9 tells us that God called out for Adam and asked, “Where are you?” As readers of God’s Word, we understand that He knows everything. There’s nothing that escapes Him, still our Heavenly Father was saddened by what Adam had done. Adam’s disobedience towards God was catastrophic. He abdicated his place of authority and dominion within the earth. This is what sin causes us to do as well. Adam and Eve had free-will choice, and they chose to use it to betray our Heavenly Father. As children of God’s light, it’s our privilege and responsibility to reject the actions of Adam and Eve and live for God through the Lord Jesus Christ every moment of each day.
Sin is the divider between us and the Father. It moves us away from where we’re supposed to be, but we don’t have to stay that way. Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to always find our way back to the Father. Because he sacrificed his life on the cross for our sins, we may get lost from time to time, but we don’t have to stay that way. We’re no longer slaves to sin, and we don’t have to make animal sacrifices in order to come back into fellowship with God. We’ve been covered by the blood of the lamb! Ephesians 3:12 (NLT) says “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.” Without Christ we wouldn’t be able to have this level of confidence and boldness when coming to God, but our Redeemer has made us so close to our Heavenly Father that He’s in us! We have God’s seed, the Holy Spirit, and because He’s drenched us in His love, we can have peace that God always knows exactly where we are. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Where Are You?”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.