Genesis 3:12 English Standard Version (ESV) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam, having eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil now knows he was wrong. While Adam confesses his emotional distress in the previous verse, afraid and naked, his first response was to blame someone else. It is not his fault.

Are we any different when we face the truth in failing to do right? Do we look to blame others or circumstances? Can we see that in our words? Can we see that in our actions? Are we acting out?

Some of my readers are well seasoned and have dealt with these issues. Some are new in the Lord and are not focused on their own thoughts and actions. They will and the reason we know this is because while God loves us where we are, He has no intention of leaving us here. That my well-seasoned readers is no different for us. We all need to change.

Romans 8:29 English Standard Version (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

It is our destiny to look like Jesus, our oldest brother. We are in the family of God and a family resemblance is dominated by strong genes. One set of genes must run throughout all of us.

1 Corinthians 6:17 English Standard Version (ESV) But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

The same spirit abides in all of us and is no different in personality, character or power. Our flesh will protest and scream “I am my own person.” The reason we know this is because we were warned.

Galatians 5:17 English Standard Version (ESV) For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

There is no sin in wanting. Sin is in the doing.

Nehemiah 1:8-10 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁸ Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, ⁹ but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ ¹⁰ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

In Nehemiah’s prayer he asks God to remember what God commanded Moses. Immediately after recalling those words Nehemiah proclaims that these are His redeemed people. Now we are in the church age and have a far better witness of His redemption power. Jesus Christ has redeemed us by faith in His work on the Cross.

So this issue still remains about returning to God by promise. How do we return to a place we have never been before? The wilderness tribes followed God in the cloud by day and the fire by night. They had a sure guide. They also had Moses who spoke to God face to face as if God were a man.

Now having spiritual ears and eyes we walk by faith. It is not as clear for us as it was in the days of the Exodus. The children of the Exodus never entered into the promise of God but we did. Christ is the promise and God has returned to us by great power and His strong hand.

What do we know about the One who abides in us? Nehemiah had the ancient scrolls to know who God was and what God said. We have the completed works in order to not only know who God was and what God said but we have the Holy Spirit to tell us who God is and what He says to us today and tomorrow.

Accept that God does not changed. We do.