Fighting to Win (part one): Getting the Right Perspective

Fighting to Win (part one): Getting the Right Perspective

“ … He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, ‘Rise and anoint him; he is the one.’ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. … ” (1 Samuel 16:12-13).


“Mom…can you guess what Bible story I am pretending?”

After surveying his armor, along with the surrounding scene, it didn’t take me long. Perhaps you already know by looking at the picture. But if you don’t look closely, you’ll miss the reason behind this post…behind my desire for a closer examination of this story through a series of posts.

There, in the left front corner of the picture is a small soldier, lying on the ground in defeat. My son, playing the role of Goliath, had difficulty keeping his battle companion upright. David lay surrendered at the feet of my child’s imagination. And while the picture doesn’t rightly represent the real truth of Scripture, I am afraid it all too often represents the reality of how we choose to fight our Goliaths.

We posture ourselves for defeat.

Rather than stand for the battle, we surrender our backs for the piercing of the enemy’s sword. The wounding he brings cuts through the fabric of God’s divine intention, causing us to bleed a red that was never ours to bleed. Instead of claiming the victory that belongs to us through Christ Jesus, we bury our sacred identity and allow the enemy his “two cents” in the matter—a scripting that was never his to write.

Defeated. Loser. Sinner. Condemned. Unworthy. Unloved. Least of the least. Worst of the worst. Forgotten. Done. Finished.

Kingdom perspective is lost with such labeling. When we allow the enemy to name us, we forget the scripting of our God who calls us by a different name. A better name. A true identity, not based on a two-cents kind of hatred, but rather on a measureless, costly love that bled from intention and writes our name with its ink.

Child. Bride. Forgiven. Loved. Prized. Called. Filled. Heir. New. Eternal.

It is a hard perspective to keep when the enemy begins his assault on our hearts and minds. It is the right perspective, but it is a difficult holding. And what is not held in earnest, is prey to a fallen surrender that tills as fresh soil beneath the enemy’s feet.

King David kept kingdom perspective throughout his life. There were seasons of limited vision, but through them all, David always came back around to the perspective of his Father. He knew that he belonged to the bigger picture. David understood his place within that picture, and most importantly, he never lost sight of the Painter who graciously ordained him to walk within its frame.

David took hold of the one thing for which Covenant God took hold of him. David took hold of his calling…his God-determined kingship. His anointing by Samuel was a point of reference for him in all the days that would follow…for all of the uphill battles he would wage to find his crown and to receive his throne.

Before David would gird a sword around his waist, David’s heart would know the girding of a sacred identity. The truth of who he was came through the commissioning of Yahweh who scripted him with his powerful Spirit and shaped him to shepherd his flock, Israel.

David has a great deal to teach us about the aspects of battle…about fighting a war where the outcome is never in doubt. We could look at his entire life’s span as our teacher, but we will narrow our focus to one story. One you are familiar with, but perhaps, one you need to filter through fresh perspective. It is a story with more than enough intrigue and drama to capture the heart of a seven-year-old boy who has a lot of fight in him and who, most days, stands ready to wield his sword in strong defense.

I imagine that our journeys can boast the same, for we are a people of drama and intrigue. As long as our flesh inhabits this earth …this is exactly how long the enemy stands at the ready to engage us in battle. Like my son, we have got to find our fight. We must find our feet and stand ready for the battle with the sure and sacred identity that God has scripted within each one of us as his children.

We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, so that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we have not received mercy, but now we have received it…in abundance. (1 Peter 2:9-10). Thus, we have our perspective for the road ahead.

Kingdom perspective, my friends. Kingdom anointing. Yours and mine. The same Spirit that came in power and filled the heart of a shepherd boy is the same Spirit that comes to us and cloaks us with the power and strength of the living LORD as we believe on Him (John 14). Yahweh. Covenant God.

We are not left to war the enemy through our own defenses. We are left with the presence of Almighty God to wage the war on our behalf. And when we get that…when we really take hold of our Father’s sacred perspective…giants tumble. Kingdoms fall, and we find our crown and our throne within his painted masterpiece called Forever.

Today is the day to stand up and to find our fight, and so I pray…

Take my wounded spirit and clothe it with your Spirit from on high, LORD. Remind me of my calling…of my anointing that came, like David’s, at an early age. Let me find the fight of my youthful faith…before it was tainted by life and by the enemy’s attempts to re-script my identity. Forgive me when I see myself as anything less than what you’ve called me to be. I am your child, and you are my great BIG DADDY! Remind me of your presence on the battlefield of my current. Keep me holding to your perspective…the one truth that claims the victory before the battle begins. And let me find my feet, Lord. Raise me up in strong defense of all that you are…of all that you have called me to be. Amen.

Take some time today to familiarize yourself with David’s story by reading 1 Samuel 16. What part of David’s commissioning resonates within your spirit? How was God preparing David, even at his young age, to take his place as God’s chosen leader for Israel? How is God preparing you to do the same?

Over the next few posts, I will examine the story of David and Goliath to glean some truth that will help us in fighting the enemy whose sole objective is to steal, to kill, and to destroy our lives (John 10:10). Please leave comments along the way. At the end of our study I will select a name from all of the comments for a special give away. If you don’t have a blogger account, you can sign in as an anonymous contributor. I look forward to sharing this time with you! As always,

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(allrightsreserved, elaineolsen, 2008).

A Toast to Vintage

A Toast to Vintage

“‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. … This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.’” (John 15:5, 8).

They arrived this week. Packaged with care and wrapped in love. My vintage treasures.

from Liz at Kentucky Bound

A tea cup, a handkerchief, some lace, and embroidered linen. A decorative pin, a sewing basket, some needles, and some thread. A CD, a book, some candles and some tea. Old and new treasures given to me because the luck of the draw landed in my favor.

I’ve never received such a gift. Partly because of the giver—someone I have never met face to face but someone who is growing dearer to me with each blogging encounter—and partly, because of the gift’s contents. Somebody’s “old” became this girl’s “new”, and I am moved by the gesture. Not because it is the right and polite way to react but because there is something wonderfully significant attached to the owning of another’s treasure from, perhaps, another era in history.

The gifts that arrived on my doorstep used to belong to someone…used to matter to someone. Now they belong to me, and I am free to do with them as I please. And right now what pleases me most is the contemplation of their worth…of their vintage significance. Not with a dollars and cents kind of worth, but with a value that extends beyond an earthly understanding.

Vintage. A word that means…

“(1) the wine from a certain crop of grapes;(2) a year’s crop of grapes; (3) the season of gathering grapes and making wine; (4) outstanding quality, choice; (5) type of thing fashionable or popular during an earlier season.”[i]

And while definition #5 seems to define the treasure in question, I am struck by the originating definition of word which is represented in the other four definitions—the choice wine from a certain crop of grapes grown in season within a particular year, and usually sown within the soil of a selected vineyard.[ii]

With vintage comes specificity. Selective choice. Particular taste.

With vintage comes a seasoned approach to the cultivation of grapes, therefore leading to the production of a wine that is meant to be savored in seasons yet to come.

And while my vintage treasure doesn’t boast a bottle of fine wine, I see the connection between the two. My gifts are the treasures from a season past. Treasures that have grown more precious and, perhaps, more valuable as time has turned its clock. Ask the original owners of said treasures and they would most likely respond with something along the lines of…

I remember when my husband gave me that pin on our wedding anniversary. That sewing basket sat beside my bed. The lace once adorned my dresser. That embroidery? I needled that when I was ten. And that tea cup? Let me tell you about some of the conversations and prayers I had over that cup of seasoned brew.

Indeed, my vintage treasures hold some value. Not from a financial perspective, but from a seasoned perspective. They were first cultivated within the soil of someone’s past, and now they have made their way to the table of my current. I will savor their flavor for a season, and then, perhaps, pass them along for a savoring yet to come.

This is the simple joy of a vintage treasure. It retains its flavor beyond the era in which it was birthed.

Two thousands years ago, a Vine grew upon the soil of Calvary’s vineyard, the branches of which continue to bear fruit. You and I…we are those branches alongside countless others who have grafted their hearts within the Vine’s embrace. We are cultivated for vintage. For the pressing through and for the pouring forth of a choice Wine whose flavor is meant to be savored for all eternity.

Not all will partake. There are those who will sniff around its edges and deem His bouquet too potent…too aromatically displeasing to the smell. Their smells are otherwise inclined…bent toward a sweeter swallow. They forsake a drink of the Vintage for the drunken folly of fools, chasing after the immediate rather than pausing to savor the timeless. They refuse to consider his value because his value is cloaked in old…in yesterday…in a history meant for containment—for an era long gone and since forgotten. Or so they reason.

But this is the simple joy of a vintage treasure…God’s treasure. He has retained his flavor beyond the era in which he was birthed.

His is a continuing savor, grown in season—past, present, and future. His Vine never boasts empty and his cup never runs dry. If we, as his branches, refuse his cultivation, there comes along another to pour forth his cup. Jesus will never be fruitless because his wine poured eternal on the day that he hung within God’s selected vineyard and bled on our behalf. He was meant for the pressing through and for the pouring forth, and this day I am drunk with gratitude for the gift of God’s costly vintage.

Jesus Christ is the finest wine I have ever tasted, and so I pray…

Fill me Father, with the treasure of your Son. Graft me within the Vineyard’s embrace and grow me with specificity. And when harvest season arrives, pour me forth as a drink offering upon the soil of my current. Fill my cup to overflow so that a taste of your eternal spills forth into the hearts of men and women who long for a drink of something lasting…something treasured…something vintage. You have transcended the embrace of history to find your place at my table this day. You have become the savor of this girl’s heart. Humbly and with the deepest of gratitude, I receive my portioned cup. Amen.

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[i] Thorndike & Barnhard, “vintage,” Scott, Foresman Intermediate Dictionary (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1979), 1014.
[ii] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vintage

The Promise of Eden (part five): the Gift of a Son

To Kristen…for sharing her story and her faith with me.

“Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. … Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’” (Genesis 21:1-3, 6).

I ask you one more time to consider the timeless treasure of Genesis 18:1-14. As you read, consider your heart and the teaching that comes with the pondering. God has clearly given me an “ending” for our time together in his Word, but endings have always been difficult for me. So as I type, I am praying that, rather than simple punctuation, God would orchestrate an extraordinary exclamation. A loud shout out from the heavenlies that solidifies his Word with the sacred acclaim of his heart’s love for you. Eden has come to your house this day. Pause to receive your pleasure. (please read and return)

I have a friend. Her story finds its home within Sarah’s. Like Sarah, infertility has gripped her womb. She has struggled with her barrenness over the years…never knowing the fruition of a seeded hope within her flesh. Still and yet, she has come to some conclusions in the matter—some resolutions born out of a painful longing that is able to proclaim an Eden’s pleasure, even though her womb remains silent. Hear now a portion of her words…

“This particular part of scripture is very dear to me. I struggled with infertility for years. My journey has not resulted in a child, but my journey is all about trusting and knowing that nothing is impossible with God. Years ago while struggling with infertility I could have only cried while reading about Sarah and the gift of a child. My story might not have included the birth of a child, but it shouts out about God’s goodness! What God did for me? He healed a broken heart. He filled a place that I only thought a child would fill. He showed me how to listen and look for His answers to my prayers. He taught me to trust Him – and Believe Him!”

Did you catch it? Do you hear the rhythm of Eden’s pulse? It came to my friend, and it comes to each one of us, my friends, in exactly the same way it came to Sarah all those years ago.

Eden arrives with the gift of a Son!

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’” (Luke 2:10-11).

Over two thousand years ago, God split the sky and pronounced Eden’s arrival with a night star that punctuated the dearest pleasure of our Father’s heart. Some were prepared for his arrival.

Some had…

postured their hearts with expectation for the gift. (part one)

Some had…

remembered the language of covenant spoken by their God through the prophets about a Son’s arrival. (part two)

Some had…

laughed at the thought of bearing a new Way in an old season. (part three)

Some had…

faith enough to believe that nothing was too hard…too extraordinary for Yahweh. (part four)

But in that moment—in that one single act of grace delivered upon Bethlehem’s soil—everyone had…

the Gift of God’s Son, laid at their feet to cradle within their arms and to claim him as their own.

Jesus Christ was, and still is humanity’s ticket home to Eden. He bridged the chasm…

~Between sin’s expulsion and grace’s reception.
~Between a desert dwelling and a garden’s embrace.
~Between “as good as it gets” and “the best is yet to be.”
~Between death and life.
~Between hell and heaven.
~Between earth’s Eden and God’s eternal Eden.

It is an Eden not meant for tomorrow, but a pleasure meant for right now.

My friend understands the pleasure of Eden. Indeed, her story finds its place alongside Sarah’s, for she carries within her fragile frame the promise of God…the gift of a Son. She has found her way back to the garden. To the intimacy, security, and sure liberty that are promised to each one us as we, too, embrace God’s grace and cradle his heart within our own.

Abraham and Sarah enjoyed a season of “newness” within their old. They named their pleasure with a name that reflected the journey which finally brought Eden home to their tent. They named him Laughter.

Undoubtedly, Isaac’s arrival brought a smile across their hearts and a laughter to their souls that had long been buried and almost forgotten. Almost. But the longing for Eden never completely leaves a soul, for God has planted a seed of eternity within the hearts of all men (Ecc. 3:11). And when God sows a seed, there is always hope for a bloom.

And when God speaks a promise, there is never a reason for doubt, for God’s Words speak only one language. Covenant. He speaks with intention and with a plan for seeing seedtime come to harvest. In season and on time, displaying the extraordinary, surpassing, marvelous, wonderful, and distinguishing work of his hands.

I don’t know where you are in relation to the Promise of Eden this day. I do know this. Eden was created with you in mind. It was God’s good pleasure to give us his garden. And even though this life will never allow us a pilgrimage through its literal gates, we have access to its pleasure each time we take hold of his Son and allow him the freedom to fill our aging flesh with the breath that breathes “new” and with the language that speaks covenant.

It has been my privilege to sow this Word alongside you. Some of us share a face to face kind of knowing. Some of us…a blog to blog kind of knowing. But the joy that fills my heart this night, is my belief that most of us share a sister to sister…a brother to sister…a child to child kind of knowing. For we are sons and daughters of the Most High King. He is our Father, and we are called to an eternal inheritance that far exceeds our now. Indeed, it begins now, but it will finish in Eden. The Garden of our forever. The Promise of our next. The home where our Father awaits to punctuate our ending with the extraordinary exclamation of our beginning!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.

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Many thanks to all of you who took the time to participate in this study. Feel free to go back and read the ones you missed. This has been a writing of obedience for me, and I feel blessed to share it with you. Leave comments below or email me with specific concerns (email button on sidebar). May God continue to bless you all with a rich portion of Eden on this side of heaven.

(allrightreserved, elaine olsen – 2008)

The Promise of Eden (part four): The Platform for God’s Extraordinary


Thank you for joining me in part four of a five part series on Genesis 18:1-14. Please read this portion of Scripture aloud before you begin. May God bless the reading of his Word as only he can!

“Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.’” (Genesis 18:13-14).

My father often tells me that “the best is yet to be.” His hopeful admonition usually punctuates a difficult season in my journey. On these occasions, I cling hard and fast to the idea that “what is to come,” far exceeds all that “has been” or currently “is.” But most days, when all is routine and not so difficult, I fall prey to believing that “what is” really is as good as it gets. Forty-two years of a lot of living lends itself to vision fixed at ground level, to a mind melded toward all things temporal, and to a heart shaped for selfish pursuit. I have grown quite accustomed to life as usual. So when my spirit is confronted with the sacred truth from a Holy God, who always breathes a message of something better, my flesh often retreats behind the wall of doubt. The echoes of my faithless laughter drown out the whispers of his faith-filled promises.

Promises measured according to God’s standards…God’s timing…God’s vision. Promises which always remain fixed at the eternal level and, therefore, prompt God to ponder my disbelief and ask the question of me that he asked of his servant, Sarah, long ago.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Hard things. Things I find difficult. Things like parenting. Sickness. Dieting. Releasing my grip of things and of people. Jealousy. Grief. Death. Sin-filled acts against humanity. Complacency in the church. Betrayal. Loneliness. Hopes long deferred and, yet, not so easily forgotten. Hard things. Things not easily understood or readily accepted, yet often the “things” that God chooses as a platform to display his marvelous and extraordinary workings.

Sarah knew about hard things.

She had spent her life as a tent dweller—a nomad keeping in stride with her husband’s calling to follow God. She was labeled with a false identity by her husband (a.k.a. “sister”) and therefore, handed over in a plan to procure a king’s favor…twice (see Genesis 12, 20). She harbored a barren womb while others around her enjoyed the fruits of motherhood. She walked within an aged frame that boasted a sad heart, with little hope for anything new. Indeed, hard living was Sarah’s portion, and it was a journey that required a difficult faith.

Hard. The Hebrew transliterated word for “hard” in this passage is palah meaning “to be marvelous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, be separate by distinguishing action.”[i] Is anything, therefore, too marvelous…too wonderful…too surpassing…too extraordinary…too distinguishing for our God to accomplish? He who spoke the world into existence, who formed the flesh of man and fashioned him after his image, …is there anything too hard for him?

So often I am tempted to keep God in his heavens. To limit his extraordinary workings because, quite frankly, I have deemed some portions of my life “too hard” for him. My understanding of who God is and what he desires for my life, is often framed through the temporal lenses of a past that boasted a “less than” existence. A past littered with let downs, with disappointments, with dreams that have died a hard death, and with a whole lot of “life as usual.” He didn’t author those seasons; sinful choices usually led me there, and yet my flesh is tempted to label him with the responsibility.

If God really loved me, then life would have been different. Life wouldn’t be so hard.

The fact is…

Life is hard.

The overriding fact is…

Our hard is God’s specialty.

God did not land our lives on planet earth so that we could just “pass through” into our next. While here, he means for us to live. To move beyond what “once was” into the wonderful, surpassing, extraordinary, and distinguishing grace of a God who designed us for abundance. Who loves us beyond reasonable bounds and who delights in mediating his majesty into our “hard” things.

It is a difficult trust…this letting go and believing God for our extraordinary. We lose some control with our relinquishment, but what we gain far exceeds what we expect. We gain Promise—a pleasured, edenic portion of life that flows with the abundant love of a Father’s heart. To get to there, God often brings us to the outer edges of our faith and asks us to trust him for something more…something better…something best. To move beyond our faithless laughter and to find that, indeed, he has postured us for new life even though we are old in years and past the age of believing we can “bear” such newness—a birthing of something far more sacred than routine and life as usual.

God is doing this for me. He is pushing me to the edge of a difficult trust, but it is an edge I am willing to embrace for I know that what awaits me on the other side is something that far exceeds my current—a surpassing and distinguishing “new” that births from an old plan, set in motion before the very foundation of the world.

My daddy is right. The best is yet to be, and so this day, I come to my Father and offer him my “hard.” I’ll ask him for a portion of Eden’s pleasure for God created Eden with my pleasure in mind. And so I pray…

Come, Lord Jesus, and mediate your majesty into my hard. What I deem difficult and even impossible, you deem as a perfect platform for your extraordinary workings. I cannot imagine life beyond my usual. But you can. You did, and now I ask you for the trust that I will need to bring me to my perfected end. Forgive me when I limit your capacity for such a working. Forgive me for the times when I forego your extraordinary in favor of my ordinary and my usual. Humbly, I confess that I sometimes settle for less, even when you have designed me for more. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind to conceive that nothing…absolutely nothing…is too hard for you. Amen.

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Stay tuned for our fifth and final devotion coming later this week. I welcome your participation by clicking on the word “comment” below and posting your thoughts. If you haven’t visited Liz at Kentucky Bound, you might want to take a look. She lives in Eden! I’m not kidding.

(allrightsreserved, elaineolsen – 2008)

[i] Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius. “Hebrew Lexicon entry for ‘Pala’”. “The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon”. (http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/heb/view.cgi?number=6381).

The Promise of Eden (part 3): the Hope of a Fragile Yearning

Please take some time to read our scripture focus, Genesis 18:1-14; not because you are unfamiliar with the story, but because with each reading comes fresh perspective. A narrowed focus. A “shutting out” of the world and a “centering in” on God’s turf–his home court, where he holds the advantage. How I pray that today’s focus will move your heart and your will closer to Him…to home…all the way back to Eden’s embrace. Would you pray for such a walk? It is possible. In fact it is a sure promise when God takes the lead.

I wonder today if any of you could boast an old heart—a life long-lived with the scars to prove it. I imagine that many of us feel as Sarah did. Worn out. Advanced in years. Past the age of bearing anything new. Our chronological age may speak otherwise, but the language of our souls speak old. What started out as a life of dreams and hopes and possibilities (remember the dances of our youth?) has now faded to a suppressed existence. What once held the high expectation of our hearts has long been buried beneath seasons of wandering and of pitching our tents along the sands of indifference.

Sarah hosted an old heart. Not only was she fragile in frame, she was fragile in spirit. The womb within her had gone dry and no longer held the possibility of birthing the promise that her husband was promised almost twenty-five years earlier. At almost ninety years of age, Sarah was doing what, I imagine that, some of us are doing this day.

Simply walking the thing through. Living a desert’s existence with little hope for change. It is a walk that I have made, and even now, I understand the exhaustion that comes from dwelling within a desert’s heat.

Good news! God comes to the desert.

He came to Sarah’s desert to plant a seed a promise on his way to proffer some destruction (see Genesis 19).

“The LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’ Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’” (Genesis 18:10-12).

Sarah’s pleasure? A child. A covenant promise long ago spoken, yet a fresh wounding every time a baby’s cry or a child’s laughter pierced the ears of her desire. Her pleasure. The Hebrew transliterated word for pleasure in this verse is ‘eden meaning “luxury, dainty, delight, finery.”[i] From this same root word comes the name given to the garden of all beginnings. Of all luxuries, delights, and finery. Eden. The birth place of God’s creative genius.

Sarah wanted an Eden moment—a pleasure birthed within the aged frame that now cloaked her deferred hope. Her dreams lay buried beneath the blanket of a desert floor where no luxuries…no delights…and no finery from God’s original garden could be found. Only days of living within the confines of a tent and nights of lingering beneath the stars. Of looking up and wondering if one of those stars would birth from her womb. As time measured its cadence with deliberate silence, Sarah’s dreams for the pleasure of Eden were diminished by the echoes of a faithless laughter and a heart that had grown old.

Eden was yesterday, and this was her now and now seemed too far removed from the pleasure of the garden. A garden that was forsaken through sin. A garden that remained illusive…just beyond a heart’s reach. Just beyond a sin’s taste.

So much was lost in that one moment when God’s created chose the forbidden. Creation stood in pregnant pause for the righteous wrath of its Creator, but even then, grace mediated its way upon the soil. God gave mercy when mercy was unmerited, but there would be a cost. A consequence. A loss that banished a people from experiencing the full measure of Eden’s pleasure.

The loss of intimacy. No more walks in the cool of the day with the Father.

The loss of security. No more lush abundance and provision of neither the land, nor its borders to parameter their safety.

The loss of liberty. No more moments of raw exposure…no more freedom in nakedness.

Yes, there would be a cost for sin. And sin would be the chasm that kept God’s children from walking back home to Eden. It still is. And for Sarah, her pleasure—her Eden—seemed too far a walk for one so old and for one whose womb had shriveled to barren hopelessness.

Good news! God came to her desert to plant a seed of promise within the walls of her shriveled hope. He came to bring the promise of pleasure—a portion of Eden—to her tent in the heat of the day. He comes today to do the same for each one of us, for nothing…absolutely nothing is too hard for our Lord (stay tuned for part 4)!

Perhaps this day you are longing for a little pleasure…for your own promise of Eden. God longs to offer you the same portion of covenant that he offered Sarah and Abraham all those many years ago. This is the power of our God. He transcends time and space to mediate his way and his will into our lives if we will allow him some shade beneath our tent.

The same breath that breathed creation into existence is the same breath that comes to your tent, even now, to breathe the newness of Eden into your old. God’s speak is sacred and meant for each one of us, and so I pray…

Come Lord Jesus to my heart this day and breathe Eden’s promise into my frame. Forgive me for the times when I limit its pleasure to yesterday’s existence. My heart is old. My spirit is weak, and my flesh is tired. Create in me a new heart, Father. A heart that beats with a renewed and right spirit and with a fresh perspective for the possibilities that lie ahead. You have designed me to inhabit the eternal pleasure that comes with a garden’s walk, and so I offer my hands and my heart for the road ahead. Lead me, Father…all the way home…back to Eden’s embrace. Amen.

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Please feel free to leave your comments below by clicking on the word “comment” and sharing your thoughts. You can sign in as an anonymous participant if you don’t have a blogger account.

[i] Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius. “Hebrew Lexicon entry for ‘eden’”. “The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon.”

(allrightsreserved, elaineolsen, 2008)

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