SIMPLE, SUSTAINED, SATISFIED

Genesis 3:1-6

What are the fruits that I am picking off the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  What are the fruits that I see as good for food; that I see as pleasing to the eyes; that I see as are desirable for gaining wisdom?  Who am I listening to?  Am I listening to the God who said, “Let there be…and there was”; the God who formed man out of dust from the ground and breathed life into him; the God who made every tree spring up out of the ground; the God who commanded, “you may eat of every tree, but one; the God who said, you shall surely die”?  Or am I listening to the tempter who said, “Did God actually say; who said, “You will not surely die”?

The road to temptation is an easy and inviting road to travel.  It is filling to the appetite; it is pleasing to the eyes to have others look upon you with respect for what you know; it is desirable to the ego to be acknowledged as well read, knowledgeable, and wise.  Aren’t these all very good things to strive for?  Don’t these elements make up a well respected man about town?  Aren’t we ‘co-creators with God working to hewn our own cisterns, filling them with water to offer to the thirsty?  Aren’t we supposed to be awake and aware of new ideas?  Aren’t we meant to be as God to others?  Isn’t it time we grow up, take our inheritance and go out to make our own ministries, asking for God’s blessing on all we do? The road to temptation is easy and inviting, but the road leads to separation from God and ends in death.

The Way of God is not always easy, but it is simple; not always inviting, but it is secure.  It is simply knowing God, listening and obeying God, and dwelling with God as our God.  We are made in His image and created to do what He would do.  But without the original there is no image; without the “God said”, there is nothing to be done.

          “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the

           fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken

           cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Where I dwell, the food I eat, and what I do, is my choice.  I want to dwell where God dwells; I want to eat the manna that God provides by the Spirit of Truth that dwells within me, revealing every word that comes from the mouth of God, revealed in nature and in the Scriptures; I want to freely swim in the fountain of living waters.  That is all that I seek and with that I will be simple, sustained, and satisfied.