I Was Afraid, So I Hid (Genesis 3:10)

"I was afraid, so I hid." (Genesis 3:10)

Fear is mentioned six hundred times in the Bible. It takes five Hebrew words to construct the word ‘fear’ in English. Fear simply put is ‘Rejection of faith in God.’ Psychiatrists describe the spirit of fear as Phobias. So far, they have identified seventy-five different phobias that produce abnormal, irrational and mind-crippling fear. The spirit of fear will break your sound mind; it will destroy your defenses and bring terror to your deathbed.

Where was the spirit of fear born? In the Garden of Eden! Man (Adam) enjoyed a beautiful relationship with God, God walked among them in the Garden of Delights, until Adam sinned. The spirit of fear came through sin, and because we continue to sin it stays with man. The thing is, ‘you will either conquer fear, or fear will conquer you.’ Worry and fear go hand in hand. Worry is your personal irritation with God. Worry is faith in fear.

Adam was afraid, thinking worrying about the consequence of his disobedience. Every sin has a consequence. When Adam was questioned by God, he says, “The woman you put here with me.” He directly blames God, which also makes him the first angry man in the Bible, no it was not Cain but Adam. Instead of blaming God, if only Adam could have acknowledged his folly, things would have been different. St. John in his first letter says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1John 1:9).

God’s command was simple, “do not” eat from this tree. Some yet argue that Adam did not directly take the fruit, it was given to him by Eve. Yes, that is true, yet he ate it. Don’t you know that partial obedience is disobedience? Any disobedience is sin in the eyes of God. Period!

Adam did not eat all the fruits from the forbidden tree, all it took was one bite of one fruit. It takes one deed to lose it all. One ‘forbidden fruit’ and sin came into the world --- One bowl of stew and Edom is hated forever in God’s sight, it is a desert waste --- One look from Lot’s wife, turned her into a pillar of salt --- One kiss from Judas and he lost his soul forever.

What is that one secret sin that is making you hid from the presence of Almighty God? You know hiding our sin does not make it go away we have to face it someday. Whatever is making you stay in darkness, bring it to the confessional, ask God to forgive you, He will. Stop walking in the shadow of death, let Jesus the True Light enter into your life and bring the brightness and warmth that your soul longs for.

“Lord God, help me to turn away from sin today so that I can draw closer to you. Take control of my life, I surrender Lord.”

Note: For those who think that the ‘forbidden fruit’ is an ‘apple’ it is not so. Our English Bibles were translated from the Latin ones, the word for ‘forbidden’ ‘evil’ and ‘apple’ is ‘malum’ that’s how some people think it is an apple. Hope there is no misunderstanding now.