PRAYER The Power of Prayer and Fasting By Marilyn Hickey (Part 4) ABSTAINING FROM FOOD TO REGAIN MASTERY OF THE FLESH We are wise to recognize that food was the enticement the devil used to cause Eve and Adam to sin in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2 the Lord God told Adam and Eve that they could eat freely of every tree in the garden of Eden, 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 (Gen. 2:17). God did not tell Adam and Eve to refrain from touching a particular animal or smelling a particular flower or swimming in a certain stream. He told them to refrain from taking a particular fruit into their bodies-one type of fruit out of all the many types He had made available to them. God had given Adam and Eve authority over all things that He had created-every bird, fish, beast of the field, and over every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (Gen. 1:29). God did not prohibit Adam and Eve from interacting with any part of Gods creation when He commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it-except for this one tree and its fruit. They were not to eat of a particular tree,what God described to them as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did God set apart this one tree and its fruit? God was giving Adam and Eve free will and the ability to make choices and decisions. Free will isnt really free if a person has no choice. Adam and Eve had a choice to make about this one tree. God told them to abstain from eating from its fruit because He did not want His beloved creation to have a knowledge of evil. He had already given them a full knowledge of everything He called good.He wanted to spare them the heartache of knowing evil. Thats true for us today as Christians. God calls us to pursue only what is good. Paul wrote to the Philippians: Whatsoever things are true . . . honest . . . just . . . pure . . . lovely . . . of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Phil. 4:8). God desires only good for His children. He tells us in His Word, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Even as God calls us away from evil and toward good,He gives us a choice. So many of the problems we have in our world today are the result of men and women making the wrong choices. They have knowingly and unknowingly chosen what is evil.And the end result is the same for us as it was for Adam and Eve: death and all forms of sin that lead to death (see Rom. 6:23).
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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