The Encounter with God and the Escape from Him

Our father Adam was the first to flee from God, and he fled out of fear.. Whoever flees from God: to where? And until when? Satan makes the encounter with God difficult in order to sow despair.. Try to meet God as you are, and do not wait.. Do not wait until you repent, but rather meet Him so that He may grant you repentance.
Many did not know God because they flee, and yet God remains the same— the great heart that seeks after all, whether those who seek to meet Him or those who flee.
And the escape from God is a story that began with the beginning of human history.
And our father Adam was the first human to flee from God.
He sinned, and he felt that he was naked, so fear began to enter his heart. And when he heard the voice of God in the garden, he fled from the face of God and hid behind the trees, and said to the Lord: “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid” (Gen. 3:10).
Adam’s escape was caused by fear, and this escape was not in his favor.
And fear is something new to man; it was not in his nature when God created him in His image and likeness. And it will not be in human nature when he regains his first image, nor will there be fear in eternity, but the fearful shall be cast out (Rev. 21:8), and love remains binding God and man as it was. Yet people inherited from Adam in his sin this fear and escape.. While it is clear that it is in the sinner’s interest to seek God so that He may save him from sin and from death, not to flee and remain far from salvation.
In the story of Jonah the prophet, we also see him fleeing from God at first, and for another reason.
Jonah fled because he was holding to his dignity.
He feared going to Nineveh and proclaiming destruction upon it, lest it repent and God forgive it so it would not perish, and thus Jonah’s word would fall! And there are those who flee from God because of a worldly desire that pulls them away from God.
Like the rich young man who went away sorrowful because he had great possessions.
This young man had met the Lord in a visit of grace that touched his heart, then he returned and fled from God because the way of God would deprive him of the love of money “according to his manner,” and more precisely, it would purify him from the love of money. But the rich young man did not want such purity for himself.
And the strange thing is that some flee from God because of humility…!
As Moses excused himself from serving God and wanted to flee, saying: “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue, and not a man of words” (Ex. 4:10).
And likewise the prophet Jeremiah who said to the Lord: “I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth” (Jer. 1:6).
Many flee from working with God and from carrying responsibilities entrusted to them, pleading weakness, and that they do not know, and that they are unworthy..
And while they flee, they lose a practical experience— the work of God in their weakness.
But those who cast their weakness into the hands of God, these have experienced how the grace of God works in weakness and turns it into strength. This is what happened with the foolish of the world through whom the Lord shamed the wise, and the weak of the world through whom He shamed the strong.
In the same logic, a person flees from Communion, considering himself unworthy. He flees from prayer thinking he has not reached the level in which he speaks with God. And in the same way he does not fast, claiming that his fast is not acceptable.
But the holiness of the mysteries and the holiness of worship call a person to prepare for them, not to flee from them.
A person’s feeling of weakness is a beautiful characteristic of humility, but it calls the person to approach God to receive strength from Him, not to flee from God and remain in his weakness.
Some flee from God because of a desire that wars against them, like the prodigal son who left his father’s house to a far country for the desire of freedom “as he thought.”
Some flee from God out of shame, saying: With what face do I meet God? This shame is good, but it is not good that Satan uses it to distance a person from “God.”
The tax collector was in such shame that he could not lift his eyes to heaven, but he did not flee from God. Rather, he said to Him in his shame: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am a sinner.”
A person must face reality and not flee from it, leaving God.
And facing reality needs honesty and also courage.
And the prodigal son in his repentance faced his reality, with wisdom and humility. And he went to his father as he was, with all the bad results that his sin had brought upon him.
Many fled from Christ because His light exposed their darkness, and they did not want to be exposed.
Others went to Him and exposed themselves willingly because they desired purification, healing, and forgiveness from Him.
So of which type are you?
Do not wait to become pure first and then go to God. Rather go to Him as you are so that He may purify you…
Do not wait to repent and then go to God and have a relationship with Him and pray and fast… Rather go to God as you are and say to Him: I, O Lord, am too weak to repent by my own will. But “Turn me to You, and I shall be turned.”
Say to Him: I come to You, O Lord, as I am— without determination, without strength, without will, and perhaps without desire for a righteous life. But I have come to ask You for all this. I ask You for strength for my weakness, purity for my soul, repentance for my sin, and grace to lead my life in Your way…
Do not wait until you know God and then form a relationship with Him. Rather ask Him to grant you the knowledge of Him.
Say to Him in your ignorance of Him: I, O Lord, have not known You until now. And how can I know You unless You reveal Yourself to me and grant me this knowledge by Your Holy Spirit? I stand before You as I am, with all the deficiencies and flaws within my soul, asking that You work in this soul.
Try to meet God in any way and do not delay.
Go to Him as you are and present your condition to Him. Begin your prayer even if it is a prayer without warmth, without depth, without faith, without reverence, without contemplation. And say to Him: Accept it, O Lord, as You accepted the widow’s mites, for I have nothing to offer, but You have much— You can grant me vigilance, love, depth, reverence, faith, and contemplation. I will receive these from You and say to You: From Your hand we have given You.
If You, O Lord, are the God of the saints, You are also the God of sinners.
There is one God for both groups, but the sinners need You more, for “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” And without You, sinners would never become saints. And You have said: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” This is what you should say to God.
And in your meeting with Him, do not find the way difficult, nor fear nor despair.
Do not say: How can I reach the life of holiness and perfection? This is difficult, even impossible!!
Do not say: How can I live in self-control while I am weak? How can I enter through the narrow gate? How can I struggle all my life? All these things are beyond my ability and I am not accustomed to them!
Know well that God will be with you in all your struggle.
You will not struggle by your weakness, but by the power of God working in you. It is enough that you seek the Lord, and He is ready to grant you grace to help you walk, and He grants you also to love Him and to love goodness and perfection, and then the gate will no longer be narrow as you see it now.
God is the One who holds your hand and leads you along the entire path.
How beautiful is the saying of Scripture:
“The great mountain before Zerubbabel shall become a plain.”
Satan wants to make the way difficult before you so that you despair and do not walk in it. But forget the difficulty of the way and constantly keep in your ears the saying of the Lord Jesus: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
How true is the saying of one of the saints: Virtue wants only that you want it, nothing more.
It is enough that you want, and the Lord will complete with you the entire way, for God does not wish to push you without your desire into His path, nor does He wish to force you into goodness. And even if you do not want, kneel before God and say from the depths of your heart:
Grant me, O Lord, to want what is good.
Place the love of goodness in my heart, and place Your love in my heart. Without You I will not desire it, and without You the devil will place many wrong desires in my heart.
But You, O Lord, grant me freely from Yourself to desire the good, and let all the credit be Yours— even the will.
And Your power, O Lord, does not appear in the saints as it appears in the weak who know fully that without You they can do nothing. And even the saint, if he does not place this thought in his heart, cannot remain firm in his holiness.
Thus a person meets God. But if he flees from Him, what will he gain?
And the one who flees from God— until when will he flee and to where?
Can a person truly flee from God? Behold, the psalmist says: “Where can I flee from Your Spirit? Or where can I hide from Your face?!”
And if someone thinks he can flee now from God, will he flee from eternity? Will he flee from that day when the books will be opened, secrets revealed, and thoughts read?!
So it is better for everyone to meet God from now, for he has the opportunity.

1. An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on 25-5-1981.

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