As I am studying in Genesis, I am trying to be more focused on all the words I read instead of skimming over them. One such set of words said this: “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” Those words are part of Genesis 8:21. And so I wanted to be clear in understanding exactly what “inclination” meant, although I know, I wanted to see what the dictionary had to say about it, so here it is:”A person’s natural tendency or urge to act or feel in a particular way; a disposition or propensity.” (tendency, propensity, proclivity, leaning, predisposition, disposition,predilection, desire, wish, impulse, bent, bias…you get the idea…we are born evil.

Really people for anyone out there who wants to argue that we are born innocent, you are wrong, our very nature, the desire that rules us from birth, God calls evil. It became apart of us when Adam fell. Have you read the story in the first few chapters of Genesis? Adam and Eve are in a perfect place, everything except one thing they can partake of, yet the one thing is what they had to have, tempted by Satan they caved. They immediately knew they were naked, where before it did not matter, and they were ashamed and hid from God. God a little deeper and we see Noah being told by God to build an Ark because he was going to flood the earth.

Noah was faithful and only he, his family and a bunch of animals survived. And tucked at the end of that story where Noah gets off the boat and builds an altar and offers sacrifices to God, we see these words. People God could have wiped everyone out. It was and is his right to do so. He is holy and cannot abide sin, yet he chose to allow humans to continue on and to multiply, even set a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of his promise.

God knows who we are, we cannot hide from him. And when we are feeling all puffed up thinking very highly of ourselves we need to remember that we are not so great! Our very nature is one that tries so hard to win out and enjoy the world and all it offers. Our sin nature tries to rule and reign in us. For those of us who are born-again into the kingdom of God, we have a new nature. God looks at us through the blood of Jesus and sees us as perfect, clean, righteous, holy. We who at our very core is evil, suddenly through no work of our own are clean! Wow, does that not bring you to your knees. Sinful man, suddenly fit for heaven with a holy and pure God. All because he decided a long time ago that he would let the human race continue, remembering we are evil, yet loving us anyway.

If you think for some reason that we are not as bad as the folks who were killed were, guess again, I am positive in some ways we must be worse. Sin is sin, no matter how vile or seemingly mild it may be. We try to grade it, but the truth is even our inmost parts are evil and God hates it all, every single sin we commit down to the seemingly mildest one.

As I do this study through the Bible, I am sure along the way I am going to read and see things I have missed. I know every word is for our edification and each word is living and active. I want to read with fresh eyes who God says I was and who through him I am. I do not think we can truly appreciate our salvation until we truly understand the depravity of our souls and the change that God does at the moment we believe and are born-again.

Maybe the next time you see a rainbow, not only will you remember the Ark, Noah, the flood, the promise, but you will have a new kind of gratefulness and appreciation for this salvation, freely given, when you understand that the flood came because man was and is evil, and God chose to spare us and allow us to come to him and be forgiven. He is Holy…take a moment and worship God where you are and thank him if you have been called and are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Knowing who you were and what he has saved you from should elicit some sort of praise about now!