I Can See Clearly Now

The more I look at it the more obvious it is, and how baffling it is that I could not see it sooner.

I have written many times now about how God hides truth from people. It is written. It is history. It is still going on.

No, I don't know why He does it, but I do know He is good and trustworthy. I also know why it is hard for people to swallow. It is again, the original sin or problem with man... a screaming desire for independence.

"No, it is sin."

That IS what sin IS.

Sin is the struggle with the knowledge of Good and Evil or in a more detailed description, the struggle with the knowledge of the distance between God and Man.

The knowledge is that we are far from perfect. God is perfect. Perfect in power, person and place. He is the ultimate being. We can't even remember where we left our keys.

The thing about sin is it is not just disobedience. Disobedience is just the result or symptom of the initial problem.

Desire

Adam and Eve were tempted not by the "tastiness" of the fruit, no, it was the "becoming like God". They were given the idea of ascending by the one who is quoted as saying "I will ascend and become like God". Satan fed them the lie, the impossibility, and they ran with it.

They ate from the tree to gain independence from God... Separation.

The US separated from England over 250 years ago. They declared independence, they became independent. For the US, it worked out well, but for man... he separated from the One who IS life.

Separation brings death.

In truth, we never did separate from God as HE IS. It is impossible. Yet, He did something impossibly hard to understand, He gave them what they wanted. He gave them a separation in mind and heart.

God is absolutely in control of His creation. God is absolutely everywhere. God is not removable from His reality. HE IS reality.

So, this separation is also a lie, but one that is permanent. It makes us temporary rather than eternal. Still, we like it just the same.

We celebrate independence!

Oh, I know, separating from a tyrannical nation is one thing, but if you think about it... isn't the heart of man doing the same thing with God?

We don't like being told what to do... so we do the opposite, we disobey.

We don't like being controlled... so we do even self-destructive things to prove our own power.

We don't like the idea of our own inability... so we drown ourselves in things that distract us.

Can you see? Everything we do wrong is an attempt to deny God's power, authority, and sovereignty.

It is in our nature... our sin nature.

Think about it...

If you trusted God, would you have done all of the stupid things you have done? The things you still regret?

If you trusted God, would you still be holding yourself and others responsible for your inability to accomplish your dream?

If you trusted God, would you still be assuming you are better than others by your "choices"?

If you trusted God, would you still hold to the idea that you are responsible for "keeping" the gift of salvation that He freely gave you? The gift you didn't earn to begin with? That gift being the knowledge, deep spiritual knowledge, that He IS God... and you are not.

Everything you do and think to lie to yourself of your power, your control is causing the same thing it always did... death. The separation of you and God deep in your own heart and mind. You resist His Spirit which is only saying to you, "Relax and trust me".

This is what I see. I see my own struggle with Him as what it is, my deep desire to be free of Him, and my resistance to accept what I am.

His.

I always was.

I always will be.

We are not our own. We never were. It was all a lie. This "independence".

However, there is freedom in accepting the truth. The truth that God is really, really, sovereign. That even my choices where written and pre-determined by Him long ago. This is the ONLY freedom we can have.

We become free to sit close to Him... the source of life and happiness.

Who else would know how to make us truly content, other than our own creator?

Like a domesticated dog, who was happy laying comfortably by the fire, after being lost for days, coming home to a very happy master. A master who feeds us, cares for us and keeps us from danger.

Seem soft?

Maybe, I don't think I would have ever been considered a "soft" man, but then I am older now and difficulty is something I try to avoid.

Maybe it helps me to see it. The truth...

I need Him.

I don't like being on my own.

I am going to stay home.

It makes me feel... Free.