As I start my journey in the New Year 2022, my heart is set upon echoing what I receive from my Heavenly Father’s Heart. This year will be all about the ECHOES OF THE FATHER’S HEART!

I am also starting out on reading through the Bible in One Year once again. It is so important to keep His Word fresh in our hearts in order to stand in the circumstances that surround us each day. We never know totally what is up ahead, but we can refresh our minds daily living in His Words and His Ways.

Shame – Fear – Control: those are three words that stuck out in my journey today.

Fear has been one that has been building in many lives today. Fear of a virus – fear of death. This is one word that I will be focusing on this year in order to echo the Word of God and how He feels about us being afraid.

In reading from Genesis today – I highlight Genesis 3 – the three words are used today showing how we mess up at times. I find it interesting early on – that fear is mentioned in His Word.

Let’s take a look at these three word and how they are used in the account of the serpent and his deceptions with Adam and Eve:

⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. ⁸ When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” ¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” ¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. ¹⁵ And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” ¹⁶ Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you. ^{(Genesis 3:7-16)}

In verse seven, note that they immediately feel “shame,” after eating the forbidden fruit – the knowledge of good and evil.

Oh how shame will play havoc in our hearts. Shame is the cause of many other labels that we will attach to ourselves – labels that God never intended for us to have.

Now let’s take a look at verse ten, God has questioned them, “where are you?” And the man responds with, “I was hiding. I was afraid.” God had given the man and woman boundaries for protection, and they broke through those boundaries and became ashamed and fearful.

Now comes the consequences of those broken boundaries – consequences are hard – tough – eye-opening. In verse 16, God tells the woman that she will bear a lot of pain in childbirth and also she will try to control her husband. There is that word “Control.”

We see a lot of controlling going on in our world right now. People are fearful and they want to control others because of that fear.

Over the past two years, we have allowed fear to take over in our lives. We are afraid to be around others – we want to tell others how to live to try to remove that fear from our hearts. But that never works. It only causes more shame, more fear, and more controlling.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for another year to walk with you. I pray that my focus remains upon you and what you have designed for my life. I pray that I will hear the echoes of your heart and be willing to share them with others in the coming months. Father, help each one of us to desire more of you – more of your Word – more of your Ways – more of your Love. I ask this in Christ Jesus’ name, Amen.

I leave these words with you today and I pray that you will seek the Father’s Heart. There is hope in that journey.