PASTOR EMMANUEL DANSU
GENESIS 3:6-11 (NLT): ” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 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[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from theLord 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?“
The glory of God overshadowed Adam and Eve before they sinned. They were not aware of their situation initially but after they fell short of the glory of God they became conscious of themselves. God created man to be conscious of Him; He created man to find his true meaning in Deity but sin has made us to focus on ourselves so much that we can even go to the extent of serving ourselves. We are in a situation where everybody is thinking about himself, this has affected us a lot and has brought in selfishness and childish acts.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7; 1 SAMUEL 13:8-12; JAMES 3:13-15; JAMES 4:6; NUMBERS 12:1-3; PROVERBS 13:10; PROVERBS 15:18; PROVERBS 29:22; ROMANS 12:3
There are various manifestations of self-consciousness such as:
- Pride: We often look at pride from the aspect of arrogance, which is the feeling that we are better than other people. Another aspect of pride which is subtle is false humility which is putting yourself down so that people can lift you up.
- Timidity and Shyness: We are shy most times because we feel our speeches would come out wrong or we feel that we might say the wrong things. God has not given us the spirit of timidity.
- Impatience: When we always think about ourselves alone, it makes us to always be in haste cutting corners to get what we want. Sometimes these little things bring strife.
- Anger: We often get angry because we are self-centred. When we think more about God and other people, we will not get angry unduly.
- Strife: The spirit of competition is a product of a willingness to always call the shots. We always want to look better than other people.
- Self-Promotion: We should always place ourselves where God has placed us, we need no self-promotion. Some of us are too conscious about our rights. If we decide to claim every right, we won’t go far with God.
- Exalting yourself above God’s opinion: We shouldn’t indulge ourselves, we should focus on God. We shouldn’t judge ourselves above God’s measure of grace and we shouldn’t belittle ourselves.
When we talk about the salvation of the soul, God wants to deliver us from self-consciousness. The word of God is supposed to be a mirror for us to be aware of our faults and this should make us repent and make amends.