It's both amazing and frightening what's out there.
There are a lot of decent people in our world, who have done many good things. Our technology is constantly being upgraded; our medical advancement is always on the move. The things we humans can perceive are both amazing and frightening. For good intentions sometimes come with bad results…
The Internet for example, was an incredible accomplishment. My parents and their generation had never experienced anything like it when they were young—remember having to do all your research via the library? But with so much at our fingertips, we can also easily fall into temptation. With most things, there comes a price.
Google a word, any word, and on average hundreds if not more of related results will pop up. Type in a dirty word and guess what you'll get? Unfortunately making the World Wide Web accessible to the world comes with such potential risks.
We have so many great inventions and ideas around us, but they often get changed to something we didn't mean for them to be. In our daily walks we often encounter these new obstacles; we can either allow our curiosity to be satisfied, or choose not to give into our creations. So while we have so much that can easily bring us down, we don't have to let it be that way. This means we can choose to either follow in God's footsteps, or stick to just creating our own.
God is perfect. He created us in His image, and if that's true, shouldn't we try to be more like Him? Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26 You might be wondering, "Well Whitney, if we are made in God's likeness, shouldn't we be as spotless as God?" To answer that let's look at what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has to say about "likeness": the quality or state of being like; resemblance; copy; portrait; appearance; semblance. We are like God, but we are not God Himself. After all, if we were so perfect we wouldn't mess up so much. So why then would He bother creating us with blemishes at all? I believe He was never planning for us to stray; but He did give us the freedom to choose our lives, and with this free will came potential "side effects", all of which we no doubt probably created ourselves. Sorry folks. But like the Internet, we often create things that has the potential to become corrupted. So, instead we 'Google' for sin, get the temptations associated with it and then take them for a test-drive. We often make the decision to go our own way without God.
God didn't want His creation to love Him because we HAD to. He wanted us to love Him because we chose to. And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13 So in creating us He gave us the OPPORTUNITY to love Him. Just like with Adam and Eve with the tree in the garden, we can view that moment as an opportunity that God presented to them; an opportunity to trust in God and love Him or not. Adam and Eve were tempted and tested and they chose to follow in their own 'footsteps'.
To be realistic, we're all going to mess up at some point in our lives no matter how 'good' we try to be. But we have been given not only the opportunity to live Godly lives, but also the opportunity to fall before God and ask for His mercy and forgiveness with a sincere heart if we stray. And He will gladly help us to recover. Because no matter your decisions, He still loves you! You have the OPPORTUNITY to let go of your sin. So what are you waiting for?*
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8: 1-11
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8: 15-17
Following the Father's footsteps,
Whitney
Following the Father's footsteps,
Whitney
