ROOTED RENEGADE

When Eve bit of the fruit in the Garden of Eden, it was good! So what did she do? Duh!  What any woman would have! She shared it with her husband of course! Hence the epic fall of man! The epitome of sin! Going against the first commandment! Don’t eat the stinking fruit from just one tree in the garden! That’s it. Pretty simple if you ask me!

Or is it really that simple or something more complex? The more I look at my own life I realize it really isn’t just that simple. If it was I would stop taking a bite of the “poisoned apple” or fruit a long time ago, as would many of others. The “poisoned apple” pictured above represents sin in our lives. It is a visual representation of the things we simply can’t seem to put down no matter how hard we try. Gossip, slander, anger, resentfulness, bitterness, etc. The sometimes small things in our lives that take up root and grow into mighty weeds in our gardens that choke out the fruits that God is trying to produce.

Romans 7:18 puts it this way:
“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. “

It isn’t to say that we aren’t good people, we just fall to the enemy’s schemes again, again, and again. We take the bait and bite the apple, just like Eve did. Then we share! We don’t just let sin affect our lives, we let it affect those around us. When we gossip it is sharing in sin. When we slander, it is sharing in sin. When we are bitter, we let it rub off in our daily lives. When we are resentful we spread it like butter on bread. It is infectious like a disease and it just keeps spreading until one day it is rampant and we look around wondering why our lives are so miserable. How did it get this bad? We pray and ask God to make our lives better and then get upset when He doesn’t snap His fingers and POOF, sudden change takes place.

There comes a point in time when we have to sit down and honestly seek His face. Honestly ask Him to empty us of ourselves so that we can stop biting all these “poisoned apples” and start eating some delicious fruits! Fasting and praying helps us to reposition and posture ourselves accordingly so that we are receptive to God’s voice not the voice of the world. The world is noisy, crowded, insanely chaotic, and overbearing. What you feed your soul you will put right back out. So why not feed it properly.

Romans 12: 2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

While there is only one day left for the “Off The Grid” Challenge, I challenge you, if you have joined me in it, to keep going. Don’t stop the Father’s work in your life. Once He starts a new work in you He will keep His promise to carry it out. Being a Christian is not an easy road. It takes dying to some fierce stubborn will at times and coming into alignment to God’s will and that my friend’s can be a hard thing at times, especially when He isn’t always forthcoming with what His will is. But He is all-sufficient! He doesn’t have to lay out His plan in a step-by-step guide for my comfort or yours. I just have to TRUST in Him and continue to do my part, no matter what trials I will face along the way.

Never lose heart and always look up! A heavenward approach is better than a worldly perspective any day!

Day 20 “Off the Grid”