Several things I heard last week are worth passing along. “Feelings are not facts.” That is so true but we act like feelings are facts. I may feel my friend was offended and nurse a hurt but later I  found out she was not – she was just late to an appointment! But how often I let my feelings rule me. Often I don’t feel like I am making progress and I get discouraged. But just because I don’t feel it, doesn’t make it true. I have to trust others to tell me when I am using the wrong barometer.

Feelings are fickle. They can depend on the weather, my health, my tiredness, my diet, my children, the stock market, the daily news… Feelings are not a dependable measure of anything except how I am feeling at that moment. It could all change within the hour! I have to look to truth. And the only reliable source is God’s Word.

I also heard last week: “Prayerlessness is an unconscious sense of self-sufficiency. Pride.

Prayer is a daily expression of humble dependance on God. Humility.”

Adam and Eve, the very first people created, were given an ideal world. A perfect life with all things in unity and harmony. Satan came to tempt Eve by making her doubt the truth of God’s Word. She did. She then lead Adam astray and we humans have suffered the consequences ever since.

How did Adam respond to his sin? 1.) He tried to hide from God.  2.) Then he tried to cover his nakedness.  3.) Then Adam tried to shift the blame.

Human nature has not changed. We do the same. It is interesting that the way we deal with sin is exactly the way Adam did.

First, we try to hide it from God. We won’t admit it to God which is silly since He knows all about what we have done. He asked Adam, “Where art thou?” not because He didn’t know, He asked because He wanted Adam to admit where he was.

2.) We try to cover our sin so no one will know. We dress it up. Change the language of it. Rationalize. Gather folks around us that have done the same things so we won’t feel badly about ourselves. We become inauthentic, pretend it isn’t there.

3.)  We shift the blame. Adam told God that it was the woman God gave to him – so it was God’s fault! That seems silly but we do the same thing. We don’t like to take responsibility for our actions. It’s our parent’s fault. It’s our horrible childhood. It’s our spouse…children…economy…

If we take responsibility we have to admit something is wrong with us. Yeah, there is. It’s called sin. We have to admit it, confess. And go to God to ask for forgiveness. He stands ready and eager to forgive. Forgiveness is His habit – all we have to do is ask. There is such freedom in that.

Speaking of freedom – go vote tomorrow!!