Living with God

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:1-13, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
This conversation God had with Adam and Eve hardly represents humankind's proudest moment. Adam and Eve had just deliberately disobeyed the only rule they were given, and they promptly blamed everyone else for their disobedience, including God (although indirectly—"The woman you put here with me…," verse 12). How many of us have imagined what we would have done if we had been there? It is easy to think from a distance that we would have rejected that proffered fruit. We think: Man, Adam and Eve blew it big time. They had everything, didn't they? Companionship, food, meaningful work, face-to-face conversation with God. What were they thinking?  But before we get too critical of Adam and Eve, as they hide among the trees after their one terrible mistake, picture God looking for us in the garden, fully cognizant of all of our flaws and failures. How far away would we run?

Like us, Adam and Eve were given the gift of freedom—the freedom to make their own choices, even the freedom to throw away all of God's other good gifts. What they did not have, however, was an understanding of the power of freedom. They did not know the consequences of actions that conflicted with God's plan for their lives. They did not yet have the character to handle the knowledge of good and evil provided by eating fruit from the forbidden tree. God's relationship with them was one of guidance and apprenticeship. The purpose of his conversations with Adam and Eve was to form their characters—to teach them how to handle the responsibility of their freedom to make choices—so that they could work in companionship with him. Having been created as fully formed adults, Adam and Eve had bypassed the process of having their characters and spirits formed in the context of a family or religious community. So, God gave them instructions about how to live. Subdue the earth but take care of it. Have dominion over the animals but be friends with them. Fill the earth with your progeny. Eat from the plants and trees. Till the garden so you will have plenty to eat. In your freedom, cooperate with me to make this a successful enterprise. Then and now, God has no interest in robots. He gave instructions, but did not force Adam and Eve to obey them.

Their characters, like ours, could be formed only by God allowing them to make choices in response to what he put before them. And this left the possibility of disastrous results. When they made the wrong choice, they had to face the consequences, and so do we. Yet the very fact of their disobedience makes the subsequent conversation all the more remarkable. God still sought them out. God knew of their disobedience; he also knew they were hiding. Yet God called out to them, gave them both a chance to confess to him. Their defiant act did not end the learning; the conversations continue, even into future generations, although at a greater distance.

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Many of us make the mistake of assuming that intimate communication with God ended in biblical times. However, the testimony of many Christians throughout history—including St. Francis of Assisi, Brother Lawrence, Julian of Norwich and Frank Laubach—demonstrate that this is a false assumption. Dallas Willard wrote in Hearing God: 

Today I continue to believe that people are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to. Rightly understood I believe that this can be abundantly verified in experience. God's visits to Adam and Eve in the Garden, Enoch's walks with God and the face-to-face conversations between Moses and Jehovah are all commonly regarded as highly exceptional moments in the religious history of humankind. Aside from their obviously unique historical role, however, they are not meant to be exceptional at all. Rather they are examples of the normal human life God intended for us: God's indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship. Given who we are by basic nature, we live—really live—only through God's regular speaking in our souls and thus "by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

We may no longer be able to literally live with God in the garden, but we have available to us many other methods of conversing with him. Make a list of the ways you communicate with God—for example, worship, Bible study, receiving communion, prayer, etc. Today, try to be aware of all the times and ways you communicate with the Creator, adding to your list as you think of new ideas. Some may surprise you. You might find that you are connecting with God when you have a conversation with good friends, when you admire a sunset, or even when you complain about a task you don't like doing. Think about your patterns of communication. Are you often alone when you find yourself talking with God or do you find yourself connecting with God most easily when you are around others? Does quiet help? Does being outdoors make a difference?

 

Also, consider what, if anything, may be hindering your communication with God. For example, our motives for seeking to hear from God may not be the right ones. We should not seek God as we would a fortune teller, to be assured of our future or of our own comfort. Nor should we seek to hear God so we can brag about it to others. Moreover, our communication with God can be impaired if we misunderstand God's nature and his intent for us. God desires relationship with us, not to be our puppetmaster. He wishes to guide us, not to make all of our decisions for us. Think about each of these. Are any of these attitudes, or another obstacle, hindering your fellowship with God?

 

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The individual with-God life is all about pursuing a close relationship with God like the one he had with Adam and Eve in the garden. Just like Adam and Eve, we live in a world where we are tempted to do many things that aren't good for us or for those we love. Often, we make the wrong choice. Yet the guidance and instruction we receive from God through reading and studying Scripture, talking with him, listening to him, and walking with him helps form our spirits so that we will be able to respond like we should when confronted with challenges and problems. But communication with God is much more than just knowing what to do in difficult situations. The better our communication with God becomes, the closer we approach the goal of staying constantly in touch with him, of living with God. 

 

 

POINT OF ACTION:

Like Adam and Eve, we today are still meant to live in conversational relationship with God. Yet many of us spend much or even all of our prayer time talking to God, rather than listening for him. Think about your own prayer life. Are you listening for the voice of God or do you find that your conversations are mostly one-way? Today, make a special effort to balance your words to God with periods of listening for his responses, his guidance.

 

 

PRAYER:

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.

“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, do I seek.

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

 

WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I've mentioned Frank Laubach before, but I'll do so again. He was a very sophisticated, educated man. He desperately wanted to experience God, so he did what sophisticated, educated men often do: he devised a scientific experiment in which he sought to live in conscious moment-by-moment communion and conversation with God. It was an ambitious idea, but he fully believed that God desired an intimate relationship with us. So, he sought to experiment with the idea of keeping God always before his mind. He called it his "Game of Minutes," and he sought to think of God for at least one second of every minute of every hour that he was awake. If you're interested in reading more about Frank Laubach's life, I'd encourage you to read Letters by a Modern Mystic. It's a very small, short book. But it's a fascinating first-hand account of his moment-by-moment experiment.