Handcuffed to a Curse

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

From the beginning of time, God designed a ‘perfect’ will for all of us.  For Adam and Eve, it was to multiply and harvest.  It is the same for the church, right?  But, we all know the story well enough:  the serpent, the fruit, the fall, and the banishment from the garden.  This is where sin takes us away from the atmosphere in which God’s will is comfortable.  As a result of sin, curses were distributed.

In Genesis 3:16, God multiplied the sorrow and pain in conception.  Notice that this is a direct tie to God’s will, as the command from Genesis 1 was to “...Be fruitful and multiply...”  Likewise, in Genesis 3:17-19, the ground was cursed, and the man was now forced to sweat and toil in order to make provision for himself and his family.  This was also directly tied to God’s original command when He said, “...replenish the earth, and subdue it.”

So, sin did not change God’s will for our lives, but it changed our nature and our atmosphere.  Now, instead of God’s will being associated with comfort and glee, it is often associated with pain and toil.  This is not because God is unkind or cruel, rather it is because His will is unchanging, regardless of our state of being.  To fulfill God’s will in my life, I must be prepared to encounter some sorrow, some pain, some sweat, and some tears. 

This is where our enemy talks his way into our thinking, though.  He would suggest, as would most simple human thinking, that, if something is painful, it must be incorrect.   So, his suggestion, and his only power is suggestion, is to stop whatever is causing us pain.  But, this is advice that comes from an entity that knows no end to his current scenario.  See, his curse, in Genesis 3:14-15, is forever.  There is no relief for him.  From that point of view, he cannot understand how we would continue in pain.  So, he constantly suggests we quit. 

Our point of view, however, must be vastly different.  In God’s incredible grace, even the curse is temporal.  In childbirth, there is pain, and sorrow, and tears, but, oh, the joy a new baby brings.  And, in the work of the harvest, there is sweat, and blood, and suffering, but, oh, the strength that fruit brings.  This is what we must remember.  Our curse is temporal, Satan’s is eternal.  We cannot allow his suggestions to become our behavior.

Consider the story of the ostrich in Job 39:

13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? 14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, 15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. 16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear; 17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. 18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.

This is the sad example of how Satan can handcuff us to his curse.  The mother ostrich leaves her eggs, and forgets about them “...as though they aren’t even hers.”  She becomes hardened against her very own children, and her labour is in vain.  Is that where some of us are?  Yes, God’s will in our life is laborious, but we can’t just walk away from it like it doesn’t exist.  We cannot ignore the responsibility of what God intends to birth in us simply because we don’t like the pain and suffering of the work.  The work is the curse, but the joy is only on the other side of the curse. 

Verse 18 tells us that, when the ostrich decides to, she can scorn the horse and rider.  She lives below her potential because she lacks the wisdom and understanding of what curse belongs to her and what curse belongs to Satan.  We don’t lack that understanding.  It is his curse, not ours that is eternal.  There is no tie between the two.  In order to be successful, our enemy must access our mind.  He must make us believe that our fate is somehow tied to his fate, and allow for that to motivate our behavior. 

My prayer, today, is that I can accept the “fellowship of suffering” because I know the harvest is coming, and joy is coming with it.

by J. Fields Trahan