The Power

We’re still exploring reasons people have for not being as close to God as He would like. We’ve gone from not even acknowledging His existence to sharing parts of our lives with Him. One of the biggest things that keeps God at a distance is our desire to be in control.

Independence goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve’s sin was that they decided to take control for themselves and to go forward apart from God. Remember, they were told they could be like God, that’s not a bad thing to want it’s just that they were doing it without Him. We still struggle with this today. There are areas of our lives that we allow God to be part of and others that we want to handle on our own. I wish it were easier to understand that what God’s looking for is not taking over control of our lives. What He yearns for is to share our life, to do it all, together.

In the cool of the day

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” I love this portion of scripture. It says so much about the intimacy Adam and Eve shared with God. How familiar they were with Him and how close He is.

Without

“You will be like God…” isn’t a bad thing. We are created in His image. The choice that Adam and Eve made that has the world where it is today is that they chose to do it without God. They would pursue being like Him on their own. This is the same choice we are faced with throughout our days, are we going it on our own or with Him?

I like to think

Though I can’t say for sure, that Adam didn’t finish naming the animals, meet Eve and go straight over to the tree. We can’t know how much time passed between chapters 2 and 3 in Genesis but it makes sense to me that they lived life in the intimate presence of God for a considerable time.

On Our Own

One answer to yesterday’s question goes all the way back to the garden when Adam and Eve decided they would “become like God” on their own, without Him. We decide the same thing all the time. We think we can do this to be healed, become that to be respected or acquire more whatever to be whole. This has proven for centuries to be fruitless.