Genesis # 7

                 

          Understanding that there is an enemy behind temptation who has a strategy and purpose to destroy and devour, has helped me awaken to be more watchful for his schemes. Scripture itself says that this is a reason to know the truth of God’s Word and to be walking in the Spirit. Pray is an important element of intimacy with God…Where we find grace and mercy.  Ultimately, I am able to overcome only because Christ did so.

Temptation is not sin. It is the enticing or daring to sin. Sin occurs when the desire (already there) that was alluring me is conceived.  It is the offense given to God. Knowing what I ought to do and but don’t and knowing what I ought not to do but do. It is faithlessness- I forget this most of the time.

                      

          Seeing the attributes of God in creation is so amazing to me. When I take the time to stop and think about the complexity of the small things that I pass by everyday-an ant for example- it makes life so much fuller of wonder! It seems silly but maybe that is the thing about children that God said to be like. Their smallness makes the world look so much bigger and adventurous! It is also neat to think about the personalities, characteristics, and values that God places in creation particularly us.

On the flip side, it is encouraging to me to know the root of my voids and struggles and remember that most other females have the same battles and the males theirs. Ever wondered why it is majority girls and women that hate snakes??? Really. There has been of few of you who have expressed the struggle to fall to the lie that God is holding out on you somehow. I was going to say the same. Contentment is hard too. Sometimes I find myself trying to make what I want to happen happen or trying to speed up things. God will sometimes in His mercy allow me to experience a wounding as a result. In doing this he saves me from myself. Other times He spares the wound. It is wild how He uses the results of sin as means of grace on my soul. He took away the privilege of the Tree of Life, so that through the morality of man he could redeem them. By allowing death, God makes way for salvation and sanctification.  

“…in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I have recently been learning that giving thanks is a weapon against my feelings of discontentment, because it opens my eyes to the graces of God in the tiniest things and the ugliest. When I give thanks, I am saying yes to what God gives. “In acceptance lieth peace,” said Elizabeth Elliot. When doing the daily things becomes mundane, when dreams die, in all forms of suffering there can be peace if I accept them as grace filled gifts from God. 

He is still the same as He was before creation. He’s good and does only good. I have James 1:17 hanging in my room, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” His blessing may be in rain drops and healing through tears. But these also are good and perfect gifts. Flowers fall, creation changes, but God is faithful. If God would allow us to have an Eden-like life now, I don’t think we would long for or see our need for Him. So I am thankful He uses the way of the cross, death, to save.