Is God Holding Out on You?

John 10:10, Psalm 37:4

Watch on YouTube

God only wants what’s good for you. You believe that, right? We can believe that here (in our head), but sometimes it’s hard to actually, like in our hearts believe that. Especially because in our world, with the enemy around us and with our own sinful minds, we can look at things and go, Man, that looks good. So why does God not want me to do it? Why does God say that’s wrong? It looks good and fine. And we can actually kind of start to feel like maybe God is holding out on us.

Or maybe God isn’t that good because we can look at something and be like, okay, I don’t know. It seems like a good desire. It seems like a good thing. What’s, what’s the problem? Let’s go back to the beginning, to the early days of the world when God created humanity. When there’s Adam and there’s Eve. God gave them all these trees. They’re in the garden, and he said, You can eat from all of these trees. He gave them the Tree of Life and said, Eat from that. That’s great. And in the midst of that garden, though, he also put this other tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And it was an opportunity for them to trust God. Trust God to give you life. Don’t try to take from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and try to seize it yourself. Trust God.

But then the enemy comes before them as a serpent and right away starts to erode that trust. He says, did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden? He actually starts twisting the words right away and he’s starting to instill doubt, like maybe God isn’t that good. Maybe God is holding out on you. Notice it’s a similar lie that we hear in our world today, like maybe God is actually… this is a good thing. God’s just trying to keep you from it.

And now what’s interesting about what takes place in the garden when Eve looks at the tree in Genesis chapter three, she sees that the fruit on the tree is good for food, pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. Which of those three things is bad? None of them. Good for food. God gave him all these other trees said eat from it. And it’s pleasing to the eye. That’s fine. That’s good. And wisdom. Actually, God talks a lot about wisdom. Those are great things. And so sometimes what the enemy tries to do actually, is he actually puts in front of us things that are somewhat good, or at least at the core level, they’re good. Like in our world today, we desire to be loved. That’s good. We desire to be happy. That’s good. We desire friendships and relationships. Those things are all good. There’s nothing wrong with those things. But then where is the problem in our world today? And to find out, let’s go back to the tree.

God wanted them to have food. God wanted to give them wisdom. The trees that he created for them to eat from were good and beautiful. What was the issue? The issue was that Adam and Eve took it for themselves, rather than trusting God to provide it. Instead of trusting the source of life to give them life, they did what looked good in their own eyes. And turn away from God and try to do it themselves. And it’s the same problem today, too. The same thing is going on. God is not against happiness. Nope, he’s not against fun. He’s not against any of those things. He’s not against having beautiful relationships and experiencing love. But he knows that if we try to do it our own way it’s going to be broken.

He wants to give it to us. He’s the source of life. And so if we’re going to receive life the way it’s meant to be, it needs to come from him, not by us trying to do it our own way. Thankfully, he sent Jesus. And in John chapter ten, Jesus said

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Jesus listened to his father and did things his father’s way. Perfectly, obeyed him all the way to the cross where he died there. And he died so that there in that moment all the ways that we have gone our own way and all the times that we have turned away from God and all the justice, all the suffering, all that brokenness and death that comes as a result of it could be placed there on him and he could absorb it and it could die there with him. And then at Easter Sunday, he rose. So through faith in him, we could have a life from God again. Real life. That’s not on our terms. Not on us trying to do it our own way, but life from him.

We’re looking forward to a day where we live in a world where everyone’s not just trying to figure out how to make themselves happy, but we’re actually receiving life from God the way it was meant to be. And even now, we can begin by the power of the Spirit to embrace how God meets our needs, our desires. We can embrace verses like Psalm 37:4 that say

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

God wants good, good things for you, and He wants to give them to you. So look to him to give you life.