Walking with God (Lent 13, 2023)

For Adam, bearing God’s Image perfectly before the fall meant that he could walk with God and talk with Him with no obstacles whatsoever to having relationship and communion. 

Genesis 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.  5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,

God’s original intent was that Adam would minister in this Eden sanctuary, working the ground (but work was not hard yet because plants simply yielded their fruit by God’s creative decree).

Genesis 2:6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed … 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God set boundaries for relationship with Him. 
Paraphrased, “You are free,” God said. 
“But you must not take for yourself what I alone can give you.” 
Don’t you see? God had already given Adam everything good.

Focus for Lent: Repent of seeking evil when God has told you what is good.

Questions for further thought:

Why, given Adam’s knowledge of all things good as his sole experience, would he have curiosity and temptation about what was evil?

In what way does our curiosity about evil deceive us about our immunity from its consequences?

It has often been said that sin will always take you farther than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you’d ever want to pay.  Can you think of a sin in your life or those of someone you know that followed that maxim?

Prayer: Lord, please guide my steps each day and keep me far from sin.  Give me strength to resist temptation and the wisdom to keep short accounts with You and my fellow man.  May I live as a person who respects Your boundaries and exhibits the fragrance of Christ in my life.  Amen.

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Categories Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals | Tags: | Posted on March 8, 2023

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