Am I Really Desired By God?Sample

When shame and victimization control our lives, we feel like we can never do or be enough to please God, and neither can anyone else. It’s a terrible burden to carry, and it leads to utter hopelessness for yourself and toward others around you. You can tell which tree you are living from by how you respond to other people’s sin, and by how you respond to your own. Eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a trap, and it leads to bondage.

But when you live from the Tree of Life, the story is different. You exchange the promise of worldly wisdom and knowledge for a relationship with God. Instead of condemning yourself and feeling like you must always do more, the Tree of Life says that Jesus has already done the work needed to bridge the gap between you and God. 

Tree of Life living means you don’t obey out of duty or fear, you obey out of delight. Prayer, quiet time with God, and serving in a local church is no longer drudgery, or activities done to earn points with the divine, but we do it out of love. I don’t serve my wife and family because I have to, but because I love to. When we fall in love with the Lord, we follow and obey Him out of passionate love. 

Jesus has been called the second Adam, and that’s because He was sent by God to make right what happened back in the garden of Eden. Jesus’ time on earth was carefully planned in order to make a way to get us back to the Tree of Life. Because the point where everything started to go wrong was the moment when Adam and Eve decided to eat from the wrong tree.

Jesus made His choice about the Tree of Life in a different garden outside of Jerusalem called the Garden of Gethsemane. The night before He was crucified, He stayed up to pray and talk to His Father, and that’s when the real showdown between the devil and Jesus happened. Jesus struggled with what was going to happen to Him the next day, and then He made a choice. He chose God’s way.