Curse laid upon both Adam and Eve

Read Genesis 3:16-19

How often have started your day with a plan? Or set out on some endeavour with everything set out with how you were going to achieve it? Then how many times have you run into obstacles, some unforeseen hindrance to your plans? It is seemingly part of the process that something will change, something will go wrong, then there are those days when not a single thing seems to go according to plan. These kind of days are the ones that drive us up the wall.

Disharmony between our plans and the reality of what actually happens causes some of the most frustrating moments in our lives. But yet it seems to be such an intricately woven part of this world. Things don’t work together and that is the way it is meant to be.

But yet we see in this curse laid upon both Adam and Eve and through them all humanity, this disharmony was not a part of God’s original creation. Children were a beautiful blessing from God but now their birth and rearing them, while still a blessing, is filled with pain and frustration. Work was made to be enjoyed, the earth was meant to be cultivated and it was to be a joyful endeavour. Instead now it will continue to yield a harvest but now with much toil and loss.

Why is this important to remember? We are often driven to points of anger and despair by the frustrations of this world. And we can be quick to turn to God in anger wondering why he made such a world. But remember this is the world we chose, we live in a broken world not because he made it this way but because we chose to bring sin in this world. 

This world is cursed because of us not God, remember that and rather than praying to him with unjustified anger, pray for help and strength to the one who can actually overcome the brokenness of this world. Often situations become much easier when we begin to pray about them.

Questions:

Where do you most feel the effects of the curse in your life?

How might you more readily turn to God in dealing with the frustrations of this world?