God’s children, from every corner of our world, quote His words. The Word of God is the blueprint of how we are to live. However, look around and we see life completely opposite God’s words. How can this be? Some say it is because what we quote is not what we live. Sadly, in many, many instances this is true. None the less, I believe the greater source for wrong living takes root in mankind forgetting one of God’s very significantly spoken words. Thus, I now pose for us to ponder if what fuels today’s self-gratifying and entitlement style of living is that generations are oblivious to one of God’s most crucial (and guiding) words, first spoken in the Garden of Eden. What is this word? It is NO.
Yes, God said NO in the Garden of Eden. Even more revealing is He meant NO. It was not misquoted or a mistake. Man fell to sin. God never stopped loving man, but He had established rules in the Garden. Man broke God’s rules. God did not say that’s ok; I know you didn’t mean to do wrong, so I’ll ignore the lapse this time. On the contrary, God said NO. No, you cannot go on as if nothing wrong happened. No, you have not and cannot ever become God’s equal. No, you do not escape the consequences of your choices.
God’s love for Adam, Eve and all of us future sinners never waned, but it also never ebbed out our responsibility to expect and accept consequences for our wrong doings. God is the founding Father of tough love. God knew tough love was necessary for us to grow up, own up and one up the devil’s leading us astray and away from reunification with our Lord in heaven.
Tough love was God’s tool for building restoration. In today’s world, tough love is not only denounced, it is annihilated. Thus, is it any wonder that we now live in a world hell bent (and bound) on destruction? Satan, just like he blinded Eve, has blurred our vision, which in turn enables our weak wills to demand yes where our strong souls should surrender to NO.
To be the best of parents to the children God entrusts to us, our role model should be none other than our Father, God Himself. Therefore, isn’t it more than time, NOW, that we turn from the devil’s permissive and deadly beguiling of “yes promises” and return to the restorative and reconciliation of God’s tough love “NO”?
Make no mistake, man’s earthly waywardness of saying yes to everything is not rooted in God’s love but Satan’s hate. For our world to change from Satan’s evil to God’s love, we grown-ups must take a “God’s Word” stance before our children, our institutions and our civil leaders. God’s tough love “NO” must become our vision, our vocabulary and our voice.
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 