“But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?'” (Genesis 3:9).

The first words God utters after the fall of Adam and Even are, “Where are you?”

“Where are you?” is an English translation of one Hebrew word, ayyekkah.

Ayyekka – where are you? – expresses the heart of the gospel story between God and us. All of the heart of God for us in the Old and the New Testaments is expressed in this one Hebrew word – Where are you?

Ayyekka – Where are you? What this question reveals about God’s heart toward sinners:

• God seeks out sinners
  • Sin causes us to hide from God and his presence
  • Sin causes shame and estrangement
  • God searches for sinners
  • While Adam and Eve go into hiding, God comes to seek them out
• God invites sinners to repent
  • Repentance leads to restoration
  • To have restoration the violation must be acknowledged by both the guilty and the one who forgives
  • Both the one who violated the relationship and the one who forgives must mutually acknowledge that a violation has occurred and that the guilty acknowledges the violation and the one violated forgives that violation
  • To merely say “Sorry” and move on cheapens forgiveness and cheapens the cost of the hurt of the party who was wronged
• God desires the restoration of sinners
  • God seeks sinners, not to destroy and punish, but to restore sinners
  • Acknowledgment of guilt and sin is for the purpose of forgiveness and restoration, never for the purpose of punishment and shaming
• God provides his redemption
  • God arrives on the scene with a plan for salvation and restoration
  • God provides Adam and Eve with garments of skin
  • God provides us with his Son, the Savior of the world

Where are you? God loves you. God wants what is best for you. God knows what is best for you.

Whatever you are facing today, you are not alone. God is with you. God is seeking you out. You are never alone for God is God Emmanuel, God with us.

“Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – the good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

“Just be yourself.”

That’s the mantra of our world. It is so affirming. It is so encouraging. It sounds so kind.

The problem is that this is a lie. This is deception at the very core. This idea is the propagation of the devil.

If human beings are good, holy, kind, loving, giving, wise, true then it would be great to “Just be yourself.” But if this is who we are, God would never have had to send his Son to die for sinners. This negates the need for a Savior.

However, if human beings are wicked, sinful, selfish, liars, murderous, jealous then it would be an absolute disaster to “Just be yourself.”

If we are honest with ourselves, when we get quiet and have the opportunity to examine our hearts and thoughts, we come face to face with the truth that the Bible says about our core identity – we are sinners in need of a Savior.

While the mantra of the devil is “Just be yourself,” the scriptures remind us, “Be like Christ.”

Repent. Turn away from sin. Turn away from self. Turn to Christ. Pursue Christ.

Our hope in this world has always been, continues to be, and will always be Christ and Christ alone.

Christ is our hope.

Don’t fall into the devil’s lie. Our freedom and hope is in pursuing Christ and his righteousness.

Please, don’t ever be just yourself.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:14).

I love the way the New Living Translation Bible translates the phrase, “bear with each other.” The NLT says, “Make allowance for each other’s faults…”

That’s it! That’s what bearing with each other means. It means that we make room for each other’s faults.

The thing is everyone will make mistakes. Everyone will do something stupid. Everyone will do something dumb because we are sinners. We are human. And, because we are sinners, we need to make allowance and make room for each other’s mistakes.

One of the phrases that has saved our marriage is: “I know you love me. I know you did not do this intentionally to hurt me. So I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Let’s break this down:

• I know you love me
  • This is where we start. This is the reason why we’re married. It’s because of love. We have to be able to assume love
• I know you did not do this intentionally to hurt me
  • The key word is “intentionally”
  • Because we are all selfish, inwardly focused sinners we’re going to hurt one another. Most of the time, we’re going to hurt someone without even trying…without even knowing we hurt the other. We’re like that. All of us
  • If someone goes around hurting people intentionally, then that’s whole different problem
• I will give you the benefit of the doubt
  • Just because you’ve been hurt, doesn’t mean you ought to respond with hurt and retaliation to every offense. If you did, you would be in conflict all the time. Such relationships would never make it
  • There has to be room for grace. There has to be some breathing room in all relationships where we give each other the benefit of the doubt

That’s what our Bible verse is saying. We are disciples. We are members of the church of Jesus Christ. So when someone hurts us or offends us, we will assume that they did not hurt us intentionally. Therefore, we will give each other space and practice grace so that we can forgive one another.

That’s a great way to build community. In fact, it’s the only way to build community.

I know you love me. I know you did not do this intentionally to hurt me. So I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.

Go ahead. Try it. Apply it to your relationships. Practice grace.