He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” Genesis 3:10

The fall is an accepted event in the Christian faith. We all know the story of the serpent entering the garden, deceiving Adam and Eve and God’s banishing them from the garden.

Many believe that banishment to be the consequence for that first sin, but the consequence of the fall was fear. Adam was afraid immediately following his and Eve’s fall. He hid himself and his wife with fig leaves and then he hid in the garden out of fear.

I believe fear is the biggest and most universal consequence of the fall. We live our lives in constant fear of a hundred million different things.

My mind is often plagued with fear.  I’m afraid of being fat again, of being poor again, of finding myself stuck in a dead-end job, of never getting married, of getting married but then getting divorced, of losing my mind, of my check engine light, of having a heart attack, of loved ones dying, of dying myself, of failing at every thing I ever dreamed to undertake, of not being ‘good enough’, of being ‘too much’, and on and on and on.

The key to this prison of fear is doubt.

What led Adam and Eve to sin? In the first verse of this chapter, the serpent causes doubt. Adam and Eve believed the deception, doubted God’s truth and gave into temptation.

I doubt that God really loves me, that he willingly sent his Son, that he has a purpose for my life, that he can accept me just as I am, that he delights in my coming and going, that he revels in my praise, that he wants to use me… on and on and on.

I doubt and I fear and then I hide.

I hide my failures from God, I hide my heart from God, I hide my struggle from everyone around me.  I sew up fig leaves and I run into the forest. I am ashamed and embarrassed and at the end of the day, I am exhausted. I am exhausted from all of the work that it takes to hide.

The hope of the Christian faith and the freedom that we so desperately crave comes from God’s truth. The end to the doubt-fear-hide cycle is truth.

The truth that sets us free is that we are forgiven, that we are new creations, that we were made in the image of the Almighty, that He does have a plan and a purpose for us, and that even when disaster strikes He will be there to comfort, to correct, and to direct.
I’m tired of this prison of fear. I’m tired of living out this curse of the fall. I’m tired of living a lie. I miss who I know God empowers me to be.

God crafts clothing for Adam and Eve. Christ’s sacrifice transforms those clothes of consequence into robes of righteousness.

Will you put off the old ways and step into the robes that fit only you today?

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