Does God Seem Far Away?Sample

WE HAVE A FREE WILL 

God created everything mankind needed for a wonderful, fruitful, abundant life to live forever in the beautiful Garden. He created us with fellowship, communion, and a sharing of hearts in mind. That was God’s initial covenant with Adam and Eve.

He only asked one thing from them—don’t eat the fruit growing on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

In spite of what some people think, God did not create mankind to be a puppet or robot but to fellowship on an equal level. God didn’t want the kind of relationship where He bossed mankind around like a slave or made him dance to His bidding. He wanted mutual closeness.

So He created us with a will of our own. When you think about it, that’s pretty risky. God took a chance when He gave us our own free will. But the only good relationship is one where each side has a choice to love and cherish the other.

When you love someone, you want them to want to love you back, right? Not be forced to walk with you or do your bidding. God loved mankind and wanted mankind to choose to love Him back. He tells us in His Word to choose life, to choose Him, to choose the blessing. But it’s always our choice.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

God provided Adam and Eve all the abundance of life in the garden and gave them dominion over the whole earth (see Genesis 1:26). Their part of the covenant was to obey that one thing God asked of them—don’t eat the fruit from that one tree. That’s it. They could eat all the other fruit.

So they had a part to play in this relationship, too. Just like you and I do. Both sides of the relationship had a part—that’s what made it balanced and gave each side a choice. You could say that mankind was on probation after Creation—would he keep up his end of the deal?