In my Christian Coaching practice, guilt and shame raise their ugly head time and time again. Genesis 3, perhaps more than any other chapter, fills us with the knowledge of why we actually need God’s plan of a Redeemer. As we discussed in our last blog, God created us to be in perfect union with Him. Whether you believe Adam and Eve’s story to be literal or figurative, the Bible still lays out the basic concept that man disobeyed God, giving us enough information that man fell out of his perfect union with the Creator. What came between man and God? Sin. You may not like the word sin, but it’s an inevitable fact that it exists in our world today. If you consider sinning to make you “less than perfect,” then you may be creating additional, unnecessary issues for yourself. The truth of the matter is we are less than perfect, and we need to be made perfect in order to reunite with God.

So the question stands… how may we be made perfect in God’s eyes?

This answer will be revealed throughout our study.

Back to the Fall: man’s sin resulted in his separation from God. What I have come to understand in the tears I have been working as a Christian life coach and drug and alcohol counselor is that sin is not an individual act or behavior. It is in fact the result of a process. It starts with desire, which is related to emotion. It starts when you desire to be satisfied by acquiring something, when you have an emotional longing to possess what you desire. Your mind is deceived into believing that fulfilling your desire will satisfy you and meet your needs. Next, your will begins to plot how you are going to get what you want, and when lust is seduced by the baited hook, the temptation is so great that you act out on your desire what ever that may look like to you. Understanding this process will guard you against doing what you may not want to do but fall into none the less. In Substance abuse terms this progression takes place: thought, compulsion, obsession and action.

You may have a tough time accepting the fact that you are sinful, but let me remind you that “denial is not a river in Egypt”. So let me pose some questions to you.  Who taught you to lie?  Who taught you to blame?  Who taught you to hoard all the building blocks in preschool? You have an innate dark side in you that causes you to lust, covet, and lie.  Blaming others is a result of your pride. Your very nature is sinful, whether you believe it or not. You and I and everyone has a separation from God. However, the Love story that unfolds slowly but surely through the words of Scripture shows that God is outside of  time.  God knew that Adam and Eve were embarrassed by their sin, in his mercy God himself made garments made of skin to cover them, this shedding of blood to provide the skins was the foreshadowing of the sacrificial system that would be given to “God’s chosen people” for forgiveness of their sin, and ultimately to the final sacrifice of the perfect “lamb of God” Jesus, who once and for all would redeem us from the penalty of death.

Today we stand, 2,000 years after the final penalty of the Cross, and yet God continues to give out His love to satisfy our sinful nature to those who by faith accept the Father gift of salvation. We are made whole in Him, and this wonderful revelation should be a greater fact for all. Whether you truly believe in the Garden of Eden has factual or fictitious, allow the Fall to open your eyes into your sinful life. Acknowledgment is the first step toward any change. Accept that you are not perfect, and continue to ask God to guide you on His path for you.

As a Christian life coach this great truth of God’s grace and mercy become the bedrock for recovery and change. I hope to discuss the mysteries behind the Bible in laymen’s terms. There are times when Scripture doesn’t give us the how or why, but instead gives us what we need.  We fail because we need a Redeemer to catch our fall. Praise God that we can live freely by His mercy and His grace.