The Source is greater

Call To Prayer

Title: The Source is Greater

By: Njuacha Hubert

Date: 13.09.2024

And to the man he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;  Genesis 3:17-18

God is the source of every good gift (James 1:17). The problem is that we as humans sometimes idolise those gifts and value them above the source: God. So we are blessed and the blessing can become a curse if they take us away from the giver of the gift in the first place. Therefore we need to pray and seek grace and understanding to love God more than His good gifts. Before I share some thoughts on why we must value God above the gift, let us look at one bad example of one who valued gift more than God and a mention few good examples of who did right.

A bad example was the fall of Adam. Adam was not deceived but Eve was (1 Timothy 2:14). Does it mean Adam was innocent or had no share in the blame? NO, it doesnot. However Adam’s sin was quite different from that of Eve. His sin is clearly explained by God in the opening verse: He listened to this wife and chose to obey her despite he had heard clearly from God. Genesis 2: 16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Immediately after this command in verse 18 it says Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner”. So Eve was created after the instruction had already been given to Adam(the man) from God. It infers that Eve got the instruction about not eating the forbidden fruit through Adam which is quite different from hearing an instruction directly from God. So you see Adam idolised his wife. He loved his wife more than God because who you listen to and obey is who you love (John 14:15-17). 

On the other hand a good example of one who didn’t idolise the gift was David. Although not without mistakes, David continued to seek after God even after becoming King till his death. Unlike King Saul, his kingship didn’t become his god. He didn’t let his love for the gift of kingship outgrow his love for God.(See for example 2 Samual 7:1-2). Another example is Abraham who was ready to give back Isaac to God.

Now, if a powerful man asks you “should I give you money or give you my contact” what would you answer? Do you want a one time off payment or a continues flow of goodies? God is the source so it does not make any sense to value His good gifts(e.g your spouse) more than Him because every good gift comes from Him. How can He then be of lesser value than what He gives?

The last thought is that we need to have faith in the power and goodness of God to be able to give back to God when we request the gifts he gives to us. Just as it says in Romans 8:28, He working it out always for our good we just need to keep loving God above everything.

In conclusion, let’s apply wisdom and choose God (the source) over everything trusting in His power and goodness.

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His goodness. Let’s pray for the grace to trust and obey.