God is for you. That’s excellent news. You might encounter people in your life that are antagonistic toward your progress in life but not God.
Not only is God a fan of you, but He is the biggest supporter of your life. If He put it together, He wants to see it last until the end. It is a fantastic realization to comprehend that God is actually for us. And if He is for you, who can stand against you?
One of the ways that God reveals His commitment to us is by providing needed guidance. God gave Adam and Eve His Word because He cared for them. If He created the world they inhabited, it was His grace to provide them with instructions regarding how to enjoy that world to the fullest. While we often wonder why God would place a tree from which He would command them not to eat, we must never overlook all the numerous trees He said to enjoy. God said “you can” far more than He warned, “you can’t.”Â
Don’t allow simplistic thinking to rob you of what this narrative teaches. The presence of the tree and the opportunity for rebellion is vital for understanding mankind. Many people struggle with the concept of God creating a tree of which they could not enjoy the fruit. If God didn’t want them to have it, why would He place it within their reach in the first place? Isn’t that unnecessarily tempting them?
The greatest gift God could give them was a consistent reminder that they were not in charge.
The tree was a tangible beacon that caused their minds to remember who they were and whose they were. As they would pass by the tree, it should have served to root their understanding that God is God, and there is none other. He alone has the right to determine what is good and evil. God displayed a billboard within this garden: “I know what is best for you, and you have to trust me.”
Without this budding reminder, Adam and Eve would have drifted into the narcissistic idealogy proposing that they were in charge. As a visual reminder, God established a monument of His authority. With its branches waving in the wind, God indicated that He alone had the right to determine what was right. While our rebellious spirits want to protest, it makes complete and compassionate sense. We should desire the higher being to make the rules and not the lesser one.
If you required heart surgery, would you want a brilliant and experienced cardiologist to operate on you or the kid wielding a pocketknife boasting of knowledge gained from a video he watched on the internet? Your choice is easy. So is ours. If there is a God who made all things and knows how they operate best, wouldn’t we desire to hear instructions from Him versus our debatable opinions that change with every alteration based on cultural whims?
God is for you. And so is His Word. He gives us His commands for His glory and our good. His rules are not restrictive but liberating. His commandments are not killjoys but merrymakers. His warnings are to keep us from something harmful and to experience something helpful.
God is so for you that He actually gave you commandments that will benefit your life if you choose to obey them.
Don’t buy the lie that His rules are meant to take the joy from your life.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.