When I mess up, my instinct is to avoid God for a few days until I feel less awful about myself. How do I break that reflex?

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”

The first thing recorded after the first wrong is hiding, and the second is God walking through the garden asking where they are. He is not looking for information. The question is an invitation to come out from behind the trees. Human beings have been running this same play since the very beginning, and the story is honest that the instinct to hide arrives long before any theology about it does.

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians tempted to drift back toward a system where approaching God meant going through someone else, at set times, very carefully. The writer argues that the way in is now permanently open, and open specifically to people who have failed. The invitation is to come boldly at the exact moment when instinct is telling you to stay well away.