Day 2: Everyone in the Garden

Luke 6:1-26; Genesis 3-5; Psalm 2

God, you bless those that struggle; those that have nothing, you will give much. Help me to be prepared for the struggles I will face this year—personal or professional—and may I depend on you with all my heart to make it through.

When Eve was tempted, it wasn't that she didn't know God’s commands—she just didn't obey the teachings that were in her heart. She wasn't wrong to seek wisdom, but she did it in a way that disobeyed God. Learning is a good thing, wisdom is a good thing, but the greatest way I can show love to the Lord is through loving obedience and obeying his commands because I know they are best for me. May God be in our hearts so that our mouth and actions reflect him this year.

Satan convinced Eve that God wasn't as good as she thought and instead he is selfish and strict. Satan made her feel like she was lacking something and convinced her to focus on what she did not have, rather than what she did have. Satan does the same today. He tries to convince us that God doesn't have our best interests at heart and we can’t fully depend on him. It’s amazing how similar we are to Adam and Eve, even when they lived thousands of years ago. First, they wanted to be more like God. We do this in lots of ways in our culture: attempting to gain power or more money. Secondly, Adam was passive in dealing with sin: we often don’t see things as a big deal, when really they are. Third, all of us attempt to hide our sins and imperfections from God as if the all-knowing God will not be able to see them. Finally, we blame God for things that really should fall on our own shoulders.

 
In this Genesis story, the blame game is so interesting. Adam blames God and Eve, Eve blames the snake, and God, knowing that it was Adam and Eve’s choice, still chooses to fight for them and curses the snake. What is interesting though, is that God cursed the serpent first. He took care of Satan before he turned to man and his sin. This is also the moment in which certain things in our world came about: the desire of women for a man who may or may not be worthy of her affection, pain in childbirth, and thorns and weeds. I imagine that the Lord was so heart-broken. He had to inflict pain upon his creation and banish them from the perfect garden he created. But then, amazingly, God's actions are still out of love. He cared for the man and woman, even though they made the only mistake they ever could—he clothed them and sent them away to protect them from living in sin forever. Had they eaten of the fruit then perhaps Jesus and the opportunity for salvation, and ending this toil on earth to live with God in heaven, would not have been available.This began the longstanding separation between him and his people.


God, you are so loving, even when we mess up terribly.