Tuesday March 15, 2022

Today is Tuesday, March 15 and this week we are exploring what the Bible says about the nature of humanity and our relationship with God.

As I step into this quiet space alone with my Creator, I pause and become still. I breathe slowly and deeply and focus my heart and mind on the presence of the God who loves me.

Pause and Pray

Blessed Lord, I worship you in the serene stillness of the dawning day with praise and thanksgiving. Help me hear the message you have for me. Speak to me through the power of your Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

I praise God and seek his promises with the ancient words of Psalm 49.

This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd. Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions. But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself. Psalm 49:13-15

Pause and Pray

This week we consider the nature of human beings and God’s relationship with his creation. Humanity is created in the image of God and given a purpose by the Creator of the universe. This “image” is glimpsed in my personal, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and relational self. Humans are made in God’s image and bear God’s image, but sin has distorted that image. When Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent, disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, they fell into sin, were banished from Eden and separated from God. There is no way to repair that separation, except through Jesus.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:20-24

Tempted by the crafty serpent, the great deceiver, Eve disobeyed the command of God and influenced Adam to do the same. I consider times in my life when I have been deceived by evil and tempted to disobey God. The Lord finds Adam and Eve hiding in the garden because of their sin and disobedience. They are confronted by God in their nakedness and fear, and God fashions clothing for them. When have I tried to hide my sin before God? I recognize it makes no sense to hide sin from God because he already knows everything I have thought, said and done. Humanity is banished from the Garden and driven out to the east of Eden with no way to return until God makes a way through Jesus Christ. That way is my way – the way to life.

Ask: When do I see evidence of my fallen nature playing out in my life and relationships? Where do I find myself in the story of Adam and Eve?

Pause and Pray

Most Holy Lord God, I am a descendant of Adam and Eve, the father and mother of all the living. I have been clothed by you and share in the knowledge of good and evil. I am unable to reach the tree of life, am banished from the Garden, and prevented from returning. Thank you for your Son Jesus who is the way and the truth and the life. You provided my way home to you. I read the words from Genesis again and listen for the message you have for me.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:20-24

Ask: What image, word or phrase stands out to me when I slowly read this passage? What is God trying to say to me through these words of scripture?

Pause and Pray

I am God’s creation and he wants to communicate with me through his word. I am learning to listen to God’s voice speaking through the biblical story. I consider the powerful images the story of the fall of Adam and Eve stirs in my soul. Perhaps I relate to Eve the mother of all the living, or Adam the first man. I imagine God clothing the nakedness of my sinful soul providing handmade garments of grace. As Eve reached out for a piece of fruit, what do I reach out to take a hold of? What do I desire to grasp? Consume? When might that disobey God? I consider the times when I feel banished or separated from God’s presence. There are deep places in my soul which long to return to a Garden-like communion with God.

Pause and Pray

Blessed Creator God, you are the author of all life and know my every thought and inclination. I invite you into my places of isolation, the loneliness of my existence, the emptiness of my heart. My soul longs for you. My life will only be complete when I am reunited with you through the power of your Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of your Son, my savior Jesus. Amen.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. Luke 16:26

I leave this time of prayer confident in the grace of my Savior who traversed the uncrossable chasm for me so that I can share his love with others.

Amen.