Do Not Fill God’s Heart with Pain

"The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain." Genesis 6:5-6

From the very beginning, after God first molded man out of the dirt on the ground and placed him in the Garden in Genesis 3, we get a glimpse into the closeness, intimacy and communion our Heavenly Father desired to share with His created people: He walked with them. Why do you think God “walked” with them? Colossians 1:16 tells us that "All things were created by Him and for Him.", including people! I think the reason scripture records this tandem part of the relationship between man and God in the Garden was because it allows us to see that God loved Adam and Eve, and wanted to spend intimate time with them by walking alongside them, listening to what they had to say, sharing His heart with them, what a beautiful thing to consider. Have you ever tried walking with someone and not saying anything? That is really hard! Fellowship is a two way street, and God wanted openness and freedom for His creation to come to Him, the Creator. I believe this brought great JOY to God’s heart and was His original intent when He created mankind!

So what happened between Genesis Chapter 3 and Genesis Chapter 6? Our scripture for today from Genesis 6 is one of my least favorite passages in the Bible. Before we go into any great commentary on it, let’s pause and solemnly consider this verse piece by piece for a few moments today.

1) The Lord saw… God watches over our world, and over the actions of man. He is keenly aware of our choices and how we live our lives. It matters to God what we do here on earth. It matters what we do in the open and it matters what we do in the dark when we think no one can see us. God sees. Our lives should bring honor and glory to Him at ALL times, and be lived in the way God intended us to live from the very beginning of time.

2) …how great man’s wickedness on earth had become… Jesus told His followers that in the last days, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man, They did eat, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:26-27). The attitude of our world is identical to the population of Noah’s day. Just go about your daily lives, nothing is going to happen. Go ahead, party, drink, get high, marry… or just be "given in marriage" meaning you don’t have to officially be married to enjoy the pleasures of it... sound familiar? Justify your sin, redefine it, label it something else so it doesn’t sound "so bad" and then just keep doing it because after all, you really can’t help yourself, you are the victim here, right? or, everyone else seems to think its "ok", so I can do it too if I want to, right? (I’m being sarcastic here)

3) …and that EVERY inclination of the thoughts of his heart… The definition of inclination is: A person's natural tendency to act or feel in a particular way, and my friends, that is exactly where we are now. People are readily following their fleshly, lustful, sinful natural instincts instead of following God’s guidelines for his people. There is no restraint, no absolutes, everything is becoming relative to what each person feels or thinks. When there is no governing authority, then chaos and destruction soon follow. This verse reminds me that God knows even my "inclinations", my tendencies, my temptations that roll around in my mind before I act, the things I consider and think that no one else will have a clue about.

4) …was only evil ALL the time. That is a pretty hard statement to consider. There was only evil all the time in Noah’s day, and we are quickly approaching the very same state. Here’s a news flash for you: Wickedness is rampant on the earth now including our great nation that once boasted of being a nation "under" God. Americans are systematically removing themselves from any resemblance of such a statement. The film and T.V. industries honor sitcoms and films that have clearly unbiblical story lines. Prayer has been removed from schools, and we are finding it necessary to install metal detectors to protect kids from violence. Preach pro-choice and then hand out condoms in the grade schools instead of teaching abstinence. My youngest daughter was the ONLY ONE in her college class to stand for the sanctity and the rights of a child in the womb in her recent speech on a controversial topic. People are more proactive in saving a whale than an unborn human being these days. Ask our service personnel to risk their lives for our nation, and then remove any reference to God in funeral ceremonies of military personnel when they do pay that price. Political leaders deciding to not allow prayer at the 10th anniversary services at Ground Zero when 10 years ago people flooded the churches and congress met and prayed together and were singing "God Bless America" on the capitol steps the day after, promote tolerance of world religions that are anti-Christian, the list is endless. So where is the Voice crying out in the wilderness these days? Sadly, many churches are hesitating to preach the full gospel that includes repentance (turning and going a DIFFERENT direction from your sin as defined in God’s Word), and what the Bible clearly defines as sin.

What happened before the flood was not God’s design, just as what is happening in the wicked world we live in now in 2011 is not what God wants for His people either. God’s Word tells us that everything God made "was good." (Genesis 1:31) He made us in the likeness of Himself (Genesis 1:27), not to be equal with Him but to be in fellowship with Him. As frail and helpless as we can be at times, we do have the ability to know God and therefore love Him, worship Him, serve Him, and fellowship with Him. Why did God create us? To be with us. To walk with us. To commune with us. To spend eternity in fellowship with Him. And what separates us from God and brings pain to His loving heart? Sin. The world is desperately trying to redefine and excuse sin more and more each day, but I am here to tell you plainly that SIN is still SIN In God’s eyes, no matter what label or dysfunction or illness you label it with, my friend. If you are choosing to willfully live in sin and knowingly walk away from God’s plan for your life, have you ever stopped long enough from demanding your right to free will to consider that God did indeed give you free will, but the choices you make still have consequences on you as well as the HEART of your All Knowing, All Seeing, Everywhere-at-the-same time God in heaven? It didn’t take mankind very long to really mess things up in Genesis, did it? Within the first 6 chapters, the Bible reveals that man’s heart, EVERY inclination, even every thought of the human heart was filled with every kind of wickedness and evil that was available in that day. If you really stopped and considered all the things that God has done for you, why would you ever consider doing ANYTHING that would fill His heart with pain?

Soberly consider if you have brought pain to God’s heart, and spend time in prayer and repentance before Him, let the Holy Spirit search your heart just as David prayed in (Psalm 139:23), and return to a place that brings Him Joy!

Sister, Lahoma

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