Today's Devotional
July 21, 2005
Subject: Hearing God - But Listening To My Brain
Genesis 2:16-17 - "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3:4-6 - And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
As is clearly illustrated by the passages above, this problem that we have with hearing God and obeying Him is nothing new. Adam and Eve seemed to have the very same issues that most of us have today - that is we hear God, we know what He said to us, but then we chart our own course or choose our own path. God clearly commanded Adam not to partake of one particular tree in the garden. Either Eve got this information from God or she got it from Adam, and then she dialogues with the serpent and tells him the rules that God has given. Therefore, she knew what God said.
This is where it hits home with us. God has clearly told us many things too, like Matt 6:25 where it says don't worry about what you're going to eat or drink or wear because God will take care of you. Nevertheless Christians are just as prone to stress over these things as are our unbelieving friends. Why is that? Because we hear God, but then we do like Eve did and begin to ponder our situation and make our own choices. The working spouse who'd like to stay at home and raise the children: "I'd like to stay at home and raise the children, but we need two incomes. Eventually we'll make enough money and then I'll..." Two incomes for what? A bigger house? More clothes? A new car? You'll do it when? I don't think your salary or your spouses salary was factored into the equation when God wrote that chapter in Matthew. Your car note, your mortgage, your second home and even your boat were meant to free you up for God's purposes and not bind you up and drive you back to work in a job that's keeping you from fulfilling the calling God has for you. Know that when you forsake your heart's desire to "make ends meet" that was your brain telling you that you had to do that, not God.
Today, realize that if we listen to God and trust in Him, the ends will meet before they get started. Stop deferring to your brain. We walk by faith and not by "our" great vision of how things are going to be when...
Carlen