Author: S.M. Wibberley

What if?  What if, in the Garden of Eden, instead of being a passive listener, Adam had broken into the conversation Satan was having with Eve?  He could have followed God’s directive to lead and protect his wife and said, “Hey, what are you doing, talking to my wife?  If you want to talk, talk to me!”  And after a few more sentences, “No, you are a liar; we are not going to listen to you.  Come on, Eve, we’re leaving this fake.  It’s time to get ready for our evening time with God!”

You probably know that God’s specific reprimand to Adam was about Adam’s failure to lead, about him following his wife instead of obeying God’s command.  (“Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,…’” Gen 3:17). The original sin was not eating the fruit, but Adam’s failure to lead himself well and then failure to lead his wife well.  That then resulted in the eating of the forbidden fruit.

Yes, what if Adam had led himself well?  How different the world, history, our lives would have been!  Recently in my worship time it struck me: every day we get to reenact the Garden of Eden and in some small way correct Adam’s mistake.  Satan comes to us and tempts us.  His main temptation is for us to disbelieve God and follow a lie.  Take for instance worry.  Every time I worry, I’m saying, “God isn’t really big enough to handle this situation.  I need to step in and help Him, make sure He does it right!”  The Almighty God who hung the earth on nothing, who breathed out the stars, who sets up and takes down rulers can’t keep His word to guide and protect me?  That’s what I’m really saying when I worry!  I have chosen to believe a lie of the enemy.

Instead, when I am tempted to worry, I need to break into the conversation between me, my flesh and the devil, and say, “No, I am not going to listen to these lies that God is weak!  My God is strong, He is the Commander of the Hosts of Heaven, He is the Sovereign God who is the bringer of the dawn, the provider of salvation, the ender of time.  I choose to trust Him to bring what I need into my life, to orchestrate the events beyond my control.  I choose to pray about this, to do my part and leave the outcome to Him!  Praise you, Lord God, for what you are going to do in this case!”

If we respond like that, we will accomplish what Adam failed to do.  We will have chosen to be glory-givers, not glory-stealers.  We will have joined God in another step of His great plan for the recreation of the universe.  We will have moved ahead in the sanctification journey the Lord has for us.

So each day, be aware of where you are living the Garden of Eden test all over again. Every temptation to be impatient, unkind, fret, worry, be jealous, compete or give into fears, is also the great opportunity to take up God’s grace, lead yourselves well and be a fountain of grace to those around you.  Which will you choose?  “He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.” (Prov. 10:17)

We had just passed through the security check at the airport in N. C. on our way to Dallas.   I got my wife seated at a restaurant for a snack while I went and checked on our gate.  As I was leaving, I glanced at my shirt pocket, and saw that my passport and boarding pass were not there! Wow, that was a potential glitch!

Immediately the Spirit spoke: “This is a test!  Will you trust me in this?”  “OK, Lord, I praise you for this new challenge, for the chance to give you glory by trusting you.  You know what you are doing and I can rest in you no matter what the outcome!”

I told my wife about it, and went right back to security where all the bins were searched, but no passport or boarding pass.  “Well, Lord, another chance to give you glory in praising by faith. Thank you for your goodness in this, for however you are going to work it out.”

As I arrived back to the restaurant, my wife happily came to me with my passport! It turns out that in the rush to get everything back in place after going through security, uncustomarily I had stuck the passport and boarding pass into my backpack.  “Thank you, Lord!”  Upon reflection, I realized this happened because I had been worried about getting through fast and was rushing, not being careful.

Then after arrival in Dallas, while waiting for our luggage, I tried to call the office to see who would pick us up.  If they came right away, there was time to make our two interviews scheduled for that afternoon.  However, all I got was the answering machine (turns out I was using the wrong number).  I began to get irritated; worry and anger were not far behind.

As I went out and looked up and down the line of waiting cars, again the Spirit spoke, “Can you thank me for this one?”  My reply this time was more reluctant. “All right, Lord, I will praise you.”  My will engaged, but my emotions were elsewhere.  I walked down to the end of the line of cars, and at that moment the gracious folks from the office pulled up.  When we arrived at the office, we found that the interviews had been rescheduled for another day, so, although we were late, we didn’t miss a thing. God had it all in hand!

The next morning in my quiet time, while thinking through these events, it struck me that my irritation and worry at the airport were “glory-stealers.”  That is, by my worry I was saying “The Lord isn’t handling this well, so I’d better jump in and help Him out!”  There was no faith in that response, only arrogance.  But when He reminded me to trust Him and to rest in His strength, I was able to praise without having any result in sight; that gave Him glory.  This insight opened up a whole new perspective for me: in every response I can steal glory from God or give it to Him!

The next morning there was opportunity to practice this.  We were getting ready to go to the office; Barbara was carefully arranging everything in our room before going and I was getting impatient.  Then the Spirit reminded me: “Isn’t impatience a ‘glory-stealer?’”  “Oh, right, Lord, I repent; thank you for this delay and the patience you offer me!”  My heart calmed down, I relaxed, all went well, and most importantly, God was glorified.

So I encourage us all to take a closer look at our reactions and be aware that sins such as worry, complaining, negativeness, impatience, etc, are all glory-stealers, but also opportunities to repent, deny what is natural and give glory to God through trust and praise.  People around us will notice it. And all the angels and demons around us see it clearly!   “He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.” Ps 50:23