Of all things that we can point to as powerful, the most powerful thing on earth is the power of choice! Man is born with the power of choice, and while we are created in the image and likeness of God, for His pleasure and because he wanted a relationship with humanity, He gave us the ability to choose whether we would have that relationship with Him. Genesis 2:16-17 states this: 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (KJV)
As God placed Adam into the Garden of Eden, he gave him a commandment, but it was up to Adam as to whether he would follow that commandment. We also know by deduction that Adam shared the commandment of God with his wife Eve, because in Genesis chapter 3, when the serpent came to tempt Eve, she told him what her husband Adam had told her: Genesis 3:2-3 says it like this: 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (KJV) Adam must have added to what God had said, because Eve added that not only should they not eat of the tree, but they couldn’t even touch it. We don’t have a blow-by-blow of the conversation between Adam and Eve, but we can ascertain by what she said the instruction that Adam gave to her.
They had a choice to make that day, and by making their choice, they doomed the world to a future of sin and failure. Many people blame the whole world’s problems on Eve, but in reality, the real problem was Adam. In 2 Timothy 2:14, Paul told Timothy that Adam WAS NOT deceived, but that Eve was. This leads us to believe that Adam chose to sin, while Eve was blinded by deception. The lust to be “as gods” (Genesis 3:5) drove Adam and Eve to choose to go against God’s commandments. We can see that even though we know that God is all powerful, our choices over-rule His power, because He limits His power when it comes to our choices! God is a perfect gentleman, and will not force us to do His will if we choose not to follow him. We do not, however, get to blame God for our problems and situations, because we are in the driver’s seat the whole way, UNLESS we completely surrender to His will.
The apostle James said this in chapter 1:13-15: 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. (KJV) If you want to change your life, YOU have the power to do so, by giving yourself completely to God and allowing Him to “take the wheel”! God is waiting for you and me to choose Him over our own will and plans, but He will not force us to follow His will. We have to choose to do so! Deuteronomy 30:19 said it best: choose life! If we choose to follow God’s plans, we are choosing life, and that more abundantly! (John 10:10)