The Tree of Life

seasons change

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day and I truly hate to confess that it didn't quite live up to the Hallmark Channel/Martha Stewart standard for me.  I really am thankful for so many things and for my relationship with God Himself, but I seem to be in a place of transition or change these days.  It feels like the leaves I see fluttering down outside, some old things are dying away and the landscape is becoming bare.  I can't quite see what the new will look like yet.

God has definitely been calling me to a new level of thankfulness in my heart with reminders on several fronts of how important that attitude is.  I read the devotional Jesus Calling, and every day has been saying something about thankfulness.  But it feels like my contentment meter reading has been tending more to the low side.  So after my Thanksgiving Day let down I knew it was time to take the issue to Jesus in prayer.  After a lot of honest venting and an equally honest look at scripture, I felt God reminding me of His promises to be with me in any and every circumstance.  For this reason, I do not need to be anxious.  In fact, God promises that when I bring my requests to God with thanksgiving, the peace of God will rule in my heart.

Sometimes I can hear scripture like that and its truth will instantly change the atmosphere of my soul.  But this time I didn't have peace and my anxious thoughts continued to rattle around.  

a barren tree

My breakthrough came with this thought popping into my mind:  I was camping out under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!  That hit some kind of nail on the head for me.  How so?  I saw it fairly quickly -- I was trying to figure out what was "wrong" and what was "right" about me and others who I love and am concerned about.  I was trying to find the path to fixing the wrong things and bringing contentment to my heart.  Sounded reasonable to me.

But we are offered a great privilege - access to the Tree of  Life!  Our first ancestors were banned from it so that they would not live forever in their fallen state.  In their case, release from earthly life apart from God was merciful.  But in Jesus, we are made right.  We are no longer separated from God.  We have eternal life and we have it with God.  By eating from the Tree of Life we gain healing of our souls, we gain wisdom, we become more like Jesus.

a place to prosper

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a trap.  It keeps us occupied with things we have no control over and ultimately cannot change.  Jesus is our answer and it distracts us from casting our cares on him and trusting him and being loved by him.  Jesus is our Way (to God, to righteousness, to heaven), our Truth (the dispel-er of the enemy's  lies) and our Life (now and forever).  He is the Source of everything we need.  I don't know about the tree in the Garden of Eden, but I think the "tree of life" is a symbol of Jesus for us.  When we eat of that tree, we are partaking of the promises of God which are "yes and amen" in Christ Jesus.  We are trusting in God's plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future.  We experience the satisfaction of enjoying the Presence of Jesus in the midst of whatever is going on.

God described my particular brand of going to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as trying to know why; trying to do the "right" thing to avert trouble; trying to understand so that I can prepare for the future or fix it; pursuing the outcome that I want.  And He described the tree of life for me as a place of surrender, release, and receiving.  It is where I lay down my expectations, even my needs, and let him provide what He knows is best.  It is where I hear Him, am reassured that I am loved, receive wisdom, encouragement, genuine hope.

God's beauty

Whatever is going on deep inside is not altogether settled.  I think that the image of the change of season when the leaves turn brown and drop off the trees may be pretty profound for me.  A lot of things that I took for granted and enjoyed are being removed, but now I see that their removal makes more room for Jesus in my heart.  I think that is a very good exchange and can say that I am thankful for it.

Scriptures referred to:  Psalm 23:4; Philippians 4:6-7; Genesis 2:9 and 3:22; Revelation 2:7; Romans 3:22-24 and 5:18-19;  Ephesians 2:12-13; John 14:6; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Jeremiah 33:3; Psalm 17:15 and 63:5

Warrior Prayer

The enemy does not want us to pray because prayer is powerful.  We have surely heard that before.  And yet I am often tempted to discard prayer requests for big situations far away from my daily life.  That happened recently with something I received in the mail.  I hate to admit it, but I almost tossed it in the trash because I really can't read all the stuff that comes everyday.  Almost, but I didn't.  I opened it and discovered the article quoted below.  It reminds me of just how enormous our power is to bring God's will about in just the way that Jesus told us to pray: 

our nation needs powerful prayer...

"The greatest agency put into men's hands is prayer.  Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and His allies in the enemy's country.  Prayer is not persuading God.  It does not influence God's purpose.  It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle.  It begins in the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its purpose on the downward swing."*

Prayer like this comes from a relationship with God in which He implants the intention of his heart into ours.  Anyone can receive it, but we often don't.  I imagine that God sees who wants to hear and has faith to act on what they hear.  He also calls and equips certain of his children for this kind of relationship with Him.  It is a high calling.
 

White Sands Missile Range Museum, NM

I had never thought about myself as God's ally living in the enemy's territory, but it is true. God is the Captain of the Armies of Heaven and He invites us to participate in the process of delivering His orders to them through our prayers and declarations of truth.  He gives us a role in getting His will accomplished because He created us for relationship.  We are citizens of heaven even though we still live on the earth in our current bodies.  Ultimately we are learning how to rule and reign with Christ in the future (Revelation. 19:8;14 and 20:4).  That's our true destiny!

I confess that I have been 'way too comfortable with my earthly life, but with the way our country is changing I am realizing more and more how out of step I am.  I may feel like an alien here, but how much better to be an ally of God!  I think we are going to have more and more opportunities to choose where our allegiance lies.   

If we knew we were qualified to pray God's will and see it done, wouldn't we pray more boldly?  The victory was won at the cross where Christ made a public spectacle of the enemy (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus gave us the authority of His Name to use when we pray (John 16:24).  God has given us armor and a sword - His Word (Ephesians 6:14-19), and the Holy Spirit to accomplish His will  (Zechariah 4:6).  We may not be grown up into the fullness of this, but we are progressing in that direction by God's grace.  Dear Father, may we realize who we are beyond the everyday activities of our lives!  We were born, and born again, for such a time as this!

State flags at Mt. Rushmore

*From article:  "Prayer:  A War Measure" by S.D. Gordon in Prayer Point, a Samaritan's Purse magazine, Fall 2012, pg. 30.