If God is in control, what is He in control of?
We are not puppets in the eyes of God. He created human beings in his own image and said it was very good. Genesis 1: 28-31.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:28-31 NIV
The fall in the garden does have consequences due to sin.
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Sin separates us from God until we make it right and confess our sins with God. God is everywhere all knowing, all powerful, and all ever-present. By living a God consciousness life we allow Him to guide and direct our life. He desires that we do His will, but we do fail because of our own choices and the consequences of sin. Sin is described as missing the mark or target similar to a bullseye with a bow and arrow. God the Father lovingly and longs to have undivided fellowship and intimacy with Him, but he will never force His will in our lives. There are times we suffer in his will even when life looks grim. Evil and wicked people commit awful atrocities, yet innocent people will suffer because of the downfall of sin and the wickedness in man’s heart.
“The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 10:9-10 NIV
Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of humanity is the ultimate price and example when it comes to suffering. He knew the God the Father’s will was to die for the sins of humanity for the whole world. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) would not perish, but have eternal life” John 3:16.
Jesus, although he was perfect and without sin as a ‘lamb without blemish’ made the choice to willfully die on the cross. In the midst of chaos and hopelessness no matter what you are facing, and it is not working out as you had planned remember God loves you and offers hope in a hopeless world.
if we allow the God to take control of our life, He will make a way when there seems to be no way. Just like Joseph who loved God ended up in prison then became Pharaoh’s right hand man for a time. He finally got out only to meet his brothers who had left him for dead when there intent was to get rid of him. Speaking to his brothers Joseph says, 20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”. Genesis 50:20 NIV (To read Joseph’s Story see Genesis 37-50).
Allow God to work it out rather than your own wisdom, because our loving heavenly Father knows best even when we make the wrong choices.
Our sponsors for this blog
https://www.newenglandwreath.com
https://www.airenvironments.com
The Watering Hole Journey 