"By one tree we were cursed, but by another tree we received mercy."
-Creflo Dollar
Indeed, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil set mankind back a lot, but not too much for our God and Deliverer.
The next tree was the cross in which Jesus was given for the sins of mankind, which granted us all mercy, if we only believe and ask.
Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of
everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this
place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or
bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very
conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find
in them a claim upon Him. -AB Simpson
"The substance of things hoped for..."
How often do we squander our hopes on fleeting, unimportant things. But this is the truth of man's sin nature, that we fail in that way, among others. However, through prayer, fellowship and the word of God, we may be renewed again and again.
An old prayer goes, "I thank You for rest and home and everything good." We do not take stock that way in the modern world; maybe we take too much for granted, and only when we see some catastrophe in a third world nation do we nearly have a moment of clarity, getting a sense of how blessed we are.
Let us not forget. Let us take heed and be thankful for how truly blessed we are.
