Think about how easy it must have been to be Adam or Eve. They had everything. Every moment of their experience was bliss. There were no arguments or wars, no pollution or sickness, no pain and no suffering. Just love and joy and God.
They had everything they needed, but still they wanted more. All of the blessings and all of the joy that comes from a relationship unhindered by the effect of sin was theirs to be had, but they threw it all away for a piece of fruit.
But it wasn’t just fruit they were after, but in fact, it was equality with God that Satan promised them that they desired. For as long as they had lived, God had provided for and blessed them. They had no reason to doubt Him or His promises but they threw away paradise and walked away from the Truth to trust the father of lies.
I find myself in this position regularly. I am abundantly blessed by God, but even in the garden of blessings that He has put me in, I search for a way to be my own god. In these moments I am convinced that God does not know what I need and he certainly doesn’t give me what I want. So I go looking for it on my own. Sometimes a serpent is there to great me and sometimes I walk alone, too close to the thing that I know I want, while pretending that it is the very thing I am running from. And so I throw away, or at the very least treat as rubbish, the things that God has given me for the momentary pleasure of the fruit that kills.
Oh how I wish that I could be obedient and love it. How I wish that I could trust God and take pleasure in His blessings and flee from the wickedness that I so often find myself tangled in. How I wish that I would not walk near that tree or think about its fruit. And, how I wish that I would spend my time on the other side of the garden where there is nothing but love and joy and God.
But more than anything, I wish that I could just set fire to that tree and burn up all of its wicked fruit so that I would not be tempted. But therein lies the problem. It’s not the tree that tempts me or some creeping serpent, but it is me. It is my nature. Just as my body desires oxygen so my wicked heart desires what is wicked.
God, please help me kill what is wicked in me and what seeks not the satisfaction and pleasure that is found in you, but seeks what only leads to death. And one day when that tree has been burned down and the desire for it in me has been conquered, and your plan is complete, please let me eat of the fruit the tree of life.
