A Garden filled with provision, and a creator filled with manifest love was not enough for them. A simple choice in the form of two trees was placed in the center of that garden: they could choose His way or theirs. A promise of life was all around them - they experienced it, touched it and tasted it daily. A promise of death was also spoken - if they chose to leave this life of perfect provision and go their own way.
Ever since Adam and Eve lost their faith in God, He has been busy drawing people back into faith-full relationships with Him. This faith is not some abstract reality… some truth we profess once to obtain a reward -not of our earning- in some world far away. No, this faith may possess some of these elements, but it is so much more.
This faith is a relational trust that is lived out in our everyday decisions. It is a choosing within the garden of our hearts: His way or ours. We are Adam and Eve… and as we blame them for the destruction we see around us in our world, we must equally blame ourselves. It was you and I back in that garden just as it was you and I, earlier this week, making the same choice at another tree.
His way or ours?
In my relationships, when struggles arise and arguments surface....when I’m tempted to use force or manipulation to have…my way.
In my needs, when I struggle to keep from stepping back into that habitual failure that has me captivated by it’s alluring beauty, because it offers something -I believe at the time- that He does not…
In my self-image, when I struggle to maintain first impressions and replay countless conversations in my mind kicking myself for saying that one thing…or I find myself soaring in the clouds because of someone’s appraisal or plummeting to the depths of Hades because of someone’s disdain instead of finding my identity in His eyes and through His grace…
In my moments of trial, when I struggle to believe that anything good could come of this situation and anxiety wreaks havoc upon my soul, when my loss of sleep is affecting my functionality because of the perplexities of my plight and peace seems like a distant impossible reality because I don’t believe He’s truly in control…
When I'm not trusting His Provision or His Character...
I may attest to all the right beliefs and think I hold them in my heart, but in these moments, and countless more like them, what good are my beliefs doing me? Am I really believing? Am I really walking in relational trust? Do I really have faith in God? No! I do not! Not in this area of struggle! And in these moments and countless others like them I hear Him calling us back to this simple faith… this simple choice: His way or ours?
Ever since Adam and Eve lost their faith in God, He has been busy drawing people back into faith-full relationships with Him. This faith is not some abstract reality… some truth we profess once to obtain a reward -not of our earning- in some world far away. No, this faith may possess some of these elements, but it is so much more.
This faith is a relational trust that is lived out in our everyday decisions. It is a choosing within the garden of our hearts: His way or ours. We are Adam and Eve… and as we blame them for the destruction we see around us in our world, we must equally blame ourselves. It was you and I back in that garden just as it was you and I, earlier this week, making the same choice at another tree.
His way or ours?
In my relationships, when struggles arise and arguments surface....when I’m tempted to use force or manipulation to have…my way.
In my needs, when I struggle to keep from stepping back into that habitual failure that has me captivated by it’s alluring beauty, because it offers something -I believe at the time- that He does not…
In my self-image, when I struggle to maintain first impressions and replay countless conversations in my mind kicking myself for saying that one thing…or I find myself soaring in the clouds because of someone’s appraisal or plummeting to the depths of Hades because of someone’s disdain instead of finding my identity in His eyes and through His grace…
In my moments of trial, when I struggle to believe that anything good could come of this situation and anxiety wreaks havoc upon my soul, when my loss of sleep is affecting my functionality because of the perplexities of my plight and peace seems like a distant impossible reality because I don’t believe He’s truly in control…
When I'm not trusting His Provision or His Character...
When I'm blinding myself to His Glory and Grace...
When I'm busy worshiping at the idol of some lesser god in the form of materialism, individualism, consumerism or any other -ism...
When I'm busy worshiping at the idol of some lesser god in the form of materialism, individualism, consumerism or any other -ism...
When I choose my way and not His way...
I may attest to all the right beliefs and think I hold them in my heart, but in these moments, and countless more like them, what good are my beliefs doing me? Am I really believing? Am I really walking in relational trust? Do I really have faith in God? No! I do not! Not in this area of struggle! And in these moments and countless others like them I hear Him calling us back to this simple faith… this simple choice: His way or ours?
1 comments:
Wow... good word. Right to the heart today.
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