By David ReayThursday 24 Jul 2014LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Genesis 2:15-17
15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the LORD God warned him,”You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden- 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit,you are sure to die.” (NLT)
Well-meaning people sometimes tell other people,”You can be whoever you want to be,the world is at your feet”. Sounds really encouraging and inspiring. Except it is a lie. To tell our children or grandchildren such things is to set them up for disillusionment. Our world is not something that we bend to our will by our hard work or skill. And in the end,it is not even our world.
From the very beginning,God set limits on his human creation. We were never meant to do all we desired to do; never meant to be whoever we chose to be. We were made as dependent creatures,those who at their best sought to be who God wanted them to be,who sought to align their will to his will.
Our great mission in life is not to be ‘whoever we want to be’. Rather it is to be whoever our maker wants us to be. And the two may be different. Adam and Eve figured they had the right to declare independence from God and seek self-fulfilment. Ever since,we have done similarly. It all sounds stirring and noble,but is really an expression of the old-fashioned biblical word: ‘sin’.
We find our true self,our real freedom,only within the limits God sets for us. This side of heaven we can’t have it all. And in that there is liberation.
Blessings
David Reay