TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN OF OUR HEARTS Part 6
TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN OF OUR HEARTS
Part 6: Fulfilling Our 10 Most Intimate Needs
We have discovered over the past few weeks just how dangerous and evil ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’ really is within us. The tree is the little ‘god’ inside each one of us, playing the role of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It promises us freedom but gives only bondage. It also promises us life and peace and gives us only death and anguish. So why do we keep eating from and listening to ‘the flesh’? One reason is that we have learned to get our emotional needs met by it. Just think about it. When we couldn’t get our needs met from the Lord because we were lost and ignorant of His life and ways, we had to get our needs met from some other place. And, just like our first parents, they ate from the forbidden tree repeatedly. It made them wiser in their own wisdom, yet, they remained ignorant of their Father’s ways and Life.
As you recall from Part 5, The Father created man with deep emotional needs. He hoped to fill and provide for those needs Himself. Instead, when Adam and Eve ate from ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,’ they made the choice to get those needs met their way. Let’s look again… 10 of Man’s Most Intimate Needs:
- Acceptance
- Affection
- Appreciation
- Approval
- Attention
- Comforted
- Respected
- Encouragement
- Security
- Support
We wrote down last week how we get these needs met on our own. We also discussed how we learned to manage life and get our emotional needs met without turning to the Lord within us to fill them. All of us over the course of our lives have become very strategic is using “the flesh” to get what we want. Unfortunately, we would have failed at the reasons for our whole existence which are; “To allow the perfect son, Jesus Christ, to meet every one of our needs and live His life through us.”
Today, let’s look at the last five emotional needs to be filled by Christ within us.
- Comforts Us – Our Lord consoles us, eases us, refreshes us, and removes all of our distress when we bring them to Him. He is our Comforter through the Holy Spirit, who will remain in us and with us forever. He carries us through our most painful moments in life. He cares for us through grief, loss, emotional, and physical distresses. He promised us, He would always be with us… and He always will.
- Encourages Us – Our Lord encourages us in all of our distresses and knows just how to meet our every need. He encourages us through His Word, during Prayer Time, through fellowship, and through our brothers and sisters in Christ. He communicates to us through our own Love Language. He speaks to us through His sweet and patient still small voice. He speaks to us through His words through the Bible. He speaks to us through songs, poems, sunsets, and sunrises. He is always speaking through the little gifts we receive. And, calls from dear friends, sisters, and brothers are always sending His love.
- Respects Us – Our Lord respects us when we humble ourselves and honor His words and Counsel. Our Lord will never override our wills but will guide us through circumstances to yield and submit our wills to His. When we do not listen or obey sometimes, He uses Adversity and Afflictions, our Teachers to get our attention. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Isaiah 30:20 NLT
- Our Security – Our Lord is our hope, shield, protector, strength, help, hope, and fortress. As we abide under His wings, we will never be shaken or moved. When we take our eyes off of our Lord in any situation or circumstance… WE WILL SINK.
- Our Support – Our Lord will never leave us nor forsake us! If Our God is for us then who can be against us! When men shall forsake us, leave us, hurt us, abandon us, Our Lord is our HUSBAND and FATHER to care of us.
There is so much to discover in ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.’ We have discovered it all on our own without knowing the detriment it is having on us emotionally, physically, and especially spiritually. The Lord is a wonderful teacher and He will continue to share the truth about ‘the flesh’ and the ways it keeps us from trusting Him. In our future blogs, I will focus on ‘The Tree of Life’ “the Life of Christ” within us and the wonderful Life we have at our very fingertips and within the depths and fibers of our very being.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, Papa, for opening our eyes these past few weeks concerning ‘the flesh’ disguised as a tree to make us wise, ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.’ We have discovered it’s just a counterfeit of You. It is not REAL, just a LIE to deceive us and keep us from THE TRUTH! Jesus, YOU ARE THE TRUTH! Papa, make these lessons real to us so that we choose to eat from ‘The Tree of Life’ rather than ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.’